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Lot Essay
The form of this table was intended for use in a bedroom, the open undertier designed to hold chamber-pot while the low edged top is intended for use as a vide-poches. The present example bears later carrying handles to the sides, the pierced sides were however intended to ease its removal from the bedroom during the daytime.
The decoration of the marquetry to the top of this piece relate it to a commode in the Wallace Collection (F39), attributed to Nicolas Sageot, as it displays similar winged infants, surmounted by birds whose necks and tails form S-curves. These designs are found to the edges of the top of this commode which dates to circa 1700. It is unlikely that Sageot was involved in the making of this table de chevet, which through its more shapely Louis XV design, dates to around quarter of a century later, a time when Sageot had become mentally ill. These designs for the decoration are more likely to have been the work of a professional marquetry cutter, possibly Touissant Devoye (active c.1706-1748) who had an association with Sageot prior to his demise but continued working after Sageot was certified insane in 1725.
A pair of tables of near identical form was sold Sotheby's London, 25 June 1982, lot 28, (£13,750).
The decoration of the marquetry to the top of this piece relate it to a commode in the Wallace Collection (F39), attributed to Nicolas Sageot, as it displays similar winged infants, surmounted by birds whose necks and tails form S-curves. These designs are found to the edges of the top of this commode which dates to circa 1700. It is unlikely that Sageot was involved in the making of this table de chevet, which through its more shapely Louis XV design, dates to around quarter of a century later, a time when Sageot had become mentally ill. These designs for the decoration are more likely to have been the work of a professional marquetry cutter, possibly Touissant Devoye (active c.1706-1748) who had an association with Sageot prior to his demise but continued working after Sageot was certified insane in 1725.
A pair of tables of near identical form was sold Sotheby's London, 25 June 1982, lot 28, (£13,750).