19TH CENTURY

The design of these console tables is based on a centre table that was probably designed by Franois-Joseph Blanger or Jean-Dmosthne Dugourc and which was executed by Georges Jacob in 1781 (B. Pallot, Furniture Collections in the Louvre, Dijon, 1993, pp. 136-137, cat. 45). The comte d'Artois had it supplied to his Cabinet turc on the first floor of the south wing at the chteau de Versailles, which he created as a challenge against that set up by Queen Marie-Antoinette at the chteau de Fontainebleau in 1777. These tables do not incorporate the ormolu bronze balls that originally held the marble top above the frame nor the blue satin fringes that hung below the frame of the original table, but which were probably removed during the Revolution.

The original was subsequently widely copied by important furniture companies such as Beurdeley.