These tables are based directly on an anonymous pen and ink drawing now in the Musée des Art Décoratifs (reproduced above). The richly carved acanthus supports, animal paw feet, bold draped floral garland and acanthus frieze of the design relate very closely to one by the décorateur-dessinateur, Richard de Lalonde (circa 1735-1808) for a console de salon. The design was engraved by Foin circa 1780 and is illustrated in Die Französischen Zeichnungen der Kunstbibliothek, Berlin, p. 402, no. 80. A related pair of consoles was sold Sotheby's New York, 4 May 1984, lot 69 and another is in the collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum and is illustrated in C. Bremer-David, Decorative Arts, An Illustrated Summary Catalogue, 1993, p. 62, no. 88. A console with a similarly carved frieze at the Kunstgewerbe-Museum, Berlin is illustrated in S. de Ricci, Le Style Louis XVI, Paris, n.d., p. 75 and another small console by Louis Delanois was sold Sotheby's Monaco, 30 November 1986, lot 1027. A pair of corner consoles of related design was sold Christie's London, 10 December 1992, lot 402.

Rodolphe Kann was a Parisian banker who assembled a superb collection of French furniture and objets d'art between 1880 and 1907. In that year he sold it en bloc to the dealers, René Crimpel and Lord Duveen for the astonishing sum of 17 million francs.