Lot Essay
The table design evolves from the Louis XIV Roman fashion appropriate for a marble sideboard 'buffet', and its frame is embellished with a lozenge-trellised mosaic recalling the coffering of Rome's Temple of Venus. With its distinctive truss-scrolled pilasters and lambrequinned stretchers, this pier-table reflects the influence of the dessinateurs du Roi Antoine and Pierre Le Pautre, such as featured in the latter's Livre de Tables qui sont dans les appartements du Roy sur lesquelles sont posée des bijoux du cabinet des médailles, published in Paris shortly after 1689. This work illustrated a series of giltwood consoles used to display the king's magnificent collection of silver.