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Lot Essay
These French-styled console tables correspond to a design dated 1739 by Batty Langley (d.1751), published in his City and Country Builder’s and Workman’s Treasury of Designs, 1740, plate CXLIII . However the design was essentially plagiarised and actually derives from an earlier engraved plate in Nicolas Pineau’s Nouveaux Desseins de Pieds de Tables of 1732-39. Pineau was a leading designer and originator, together with Juste-Aurèle Meissonnier and Jacques de La Joue, of the genre pittoresque or French rococo style. His books were widely available in English provinces and American colonies provinces and he seems to have enjoyed a good reputation in London. His obituary in the London Advertiser and Literary Gazette, 6 March 1751 noted `his great Integrity...in reducing the exorbitant Bills of such Workmen, who endeavoured to impose upon their Employers'.
Although Batty Langley is chiefly remembered for his role in the 18th century gothic revival the impact of his many publications played a significant part in promoting the rococo style as a reaction to the Palladian/Kentian movement that was prevalent in the first half of the 18th Century, and which was to provide the stimulus for furniture pattern books such as Thomas Chippendale's The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director, 1754. While Langley's designs rather discreetly reflect Parisian taste for a small but influential Francophile market, it was Chippendale who explicitly referred to `French Chairs' and `French Commode Tables'.
Related pier tables include a pair at The Vyne, Hampshire (NT 718877), and a single table at Uppark House, West Sussex (NT 137653). A similar table that closely relates to another design published by both Pineau and Langley, was sold anonymously Christie’s London, 3 November 2011, lot 49 ( sold after sale, £18,750 including premium).
Although Batty Langley is chiefly remembered for his role in the 18th century gothic revival the impact of his many publications played a significant part in promoting the rococo style as a reaction to the Palladian/Kentian movement that was prevalent in the first half of the 18th Century, and which was to provide the stimulus for furniture pattern books such as Thomas Chippendale's The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director, 1754. While Langley's designs rather discreetly reflect Parisian taste for a small but influential Francophile market, it was Chippendale who explicitly referred to `French Chairs' and `French Commode Tables'.
Related pier tables include a pair at The Vyne, Hampshire (NT 718877), and a single table at Uppark House, West Sussex (NT 137653). A similar table that closely relates to another design published by both Pineau and Langley, was sold anonymously Christie’s London, 3 November 2011, lot 49 ( sold after sale, £18,750 including premium).