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Lot Essay
This Royal table de famille in superb flamed mahogany, was delivered in circa 1832-1833 by Georges-Alphonse Jacob-Desmalter, along with a second identical table, for the 'family room' of the Grands Appartements of King Louis-Philippe, located on the 1st floor on the garden side of the Tuileries Palace. Adorned with a top lined with leather, the table is distinguished by the four drawers to its frieze, each one used by a member of the Royal family.
Louis-Philippe's 'family room' was fitted out between 1831 and 1833 on the site of the King's former bedroom under the Ancien Régime; ; it remained the 'family room' under the Empire and Restauration, returning again to a bedroom under the Second Empire, when it became the bedroom of Empress Eugénie. From the start of his reign, Louis-Philippe had shared the Queen's apartment on the ground floor. Formed of a row of seven rooms opening onto the garden, the former apartment of the sovereign therefore lost its primary purpose in favour of a more official function, partially transformed into a government apartment, an extension of the large royal apartments located on the side court. Starting from the staircase of the Pavillon de Flore, this apartment consisted of an antechamber, a Council room, a Ministers' room or blue room, a library, and a small study. Towards the terrace, followed the 'family room' and the rooms in the suite, and a billiard room, opening onto the throne room. These last two rooms were used for receptions and enabled the royal family to maintain at the Tuileries the habits they had acquired at the Palais Royal.
Under the July Monarchy, the tables de famille systematically adorned the apartments of the King, the Queen, and their children, the Orléans family having opted for a more 'grand bourgeois' way of life than that subject to the rigour of the court etiquettes that had prevailed in previous reigns.
Famous paintings by Eugène Lami (1800-1890), recounting Queen Victoria's historic visit to the Château d'Eu in September 1843, allow us to get an idea of these large tables around which the masters of the place and their guests gathered to chat or play. These tables, enclosing four or eight drawers, sometimes numbered, could also be used by the Queen and the princesses to contain their works.
Two tables similar to the present table, with the same diameter, but without bronzes, are now at the Grand Trianon in Versailles. They had been delivered for this palace by Georges-Alphonse Jacob-Desmalter: the first, on May 12, 1837, for Napoleon's 'family room' which Louis-Philippe kept until the creation of the new "family room" in 1834; the second, on May 26, 1837, for the large apartments of the Trianon Palace.
A third 'family table' was delivered to the Grand Trianon of the same model but executed in ash and with a smaller top (114 cm. in diameter). On its legs it displays the same large gilt-bronze palmettes as on the present table. This small family table was placed in Queen Marie-Amélie’s bedroom at Trianon, near the Salon des Glaces, a place it still occupies today.
Born in Paris on 23 February, 1799, Georges-Alphonse Jacob-Desmalter was the son of François-Honoré-Georges (1770-1841) and Adélaïde-Anne Lignereux, daughter of the famous marchand. He began his career decorating with his father, then became a pupil of the architect Charles Percier. He finally returned to his father's workshop, then took over the management on 1 January 1825. His workshops were located on the rue de Bondy, at no 30 from 1825 to 1830, then at no 44 until 1836. They moved to no 23 rue des Vinaigriers after this date.
An excellent draughtsman, Georges-Alphonse Jacob-Desmalter provided, like his father and his grandfather before him, a large number of pieces of furniture for the royal châteaux, and was considered by his contemporaries to be one of the oldest and most venerable in Paris.
The Vicomte de la Bonninière Beaumont-Vassy recorded King Louis Philippe's routine in his memoires: “Loving work, very regular in the ordinary habits of life, Louis-Philippe got up early, enjoyed making his fire himself in winter, carefully reading the foreign gazettes, more particularly the English newspapers, without paying much attention to French newspapers, unless (which was very rare) an article had been brought to his attention. He then indulged in the private correspondence he maintained with a few people, most often representing France abroad. Then, after a frugal meal, he attended the council of ministers, or received provincial deputations, which happened frequently in the first months of the Revolution of 1830. Finally, after a more or less long walk, he took a second meal consisting of the simplest dishes, invariably the same, were soups of different kinds which the king ate successively; poultry with rice and at the end of the meal, a glass of Spanish wine. He would then stay until ten o'clock in the evening in the family drawing-room and retire to a closet to write there again until late at night. A sober, regular, intelligently distributed life that Louis-Philippe had led at the Palais-Royal and that he continued at the Tuileries until the end of his reign”. (in Édouard Ferdinand de la Bonninière Beaumont-Vassy (vicomte de), Les salons de Paris et la société parisienne sous Louis-Philippe Ier, Paris, 1866, p. 186-187)
According to the inscription still visible in one of the drawers, the table was offered by Louis-Philippe’s successor, Napoleon III, to Julie Charlotte Pauline Zénaïde Laetita Désirée Bartholomée Bonaparte, Marquise de Roccagiovine and French princess, born on June 6, 1830 at Villa Paolina, in Rome. Cousin of the Emperor Napoleon III, she was a personality of the Second Empire, known in particular for her literary salon. Daughter of Charles Lucien Bonaparte and his wife Zénaïde Bonaparte, she was thus the granddaughter of two of Emperor Napoleon I's brothers, Lucien and Joseph Bonaparte. On August 30, 1847 she married Alessandro Del Gallo (1826-1892), Marquis of Roccagiovine in Rome with whom she had five children.
In her hotel, at 142 rue de Grenelle-Saint-Germain, she held an important literary salon every Friday evening, frequented by the Empress Eugénie, and competing with that of Princess Mathilde, her cousin. Among those who regularly frequented this circle were Ernest Renan, Charles-Augustin Sainte-Beuve, Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly and Adolphe Billault, as well as many ministers, diplomats and senior civil servants. At the fall of the Second Empire, Julie Bonaparte retired to her palace in Rome, located by the forum, where she died on October 28, 1900.
Known as the "Hôtel Bonaparte" when it was inhabited by the Marquise de Roccagiovine and her family during the Second Empire, the current hotel of the Swiss Embassy in Paris, located at n° 142 rue de Grenelle, was built for Abbé Chanac de Pompadour by the architect Alexis Delamair in 1705, and later occupied by Baron Pierre-Victor de Besenval (1721-1794).
Louis-Philippe's 'family room' was fitted out between 1831 and 1833 on the site of the King's former bedroom under the Ancien Régime; ; it remained the 'family room' under the Empire and Restauration, returning again to a bedroom under the Second Empire, when it became the bedroom of Empress Eugénie. From the start of his reign, Louis-Philippe had shared the Queen's apartment on the ground floor. Formed of a row of seven rooms opening onto the garden, the former apartment of the sovereign therefore lost its primary purpose in favour of a more official function, partially transformed into a government apartment, an extension of the large royal apartments located on the side court. Starting from the staircase of the Pavillon de Flore, this apartment consisted of an antechamber, a Council room, a Ministers' room or blue room, a library, and a small study. Towards the terrace, followed the 'family room' and the rooms in the suite, and a billiard room, opening onto the throne room. These last two rooms were used for receptions and enabled the royal family to maintain at the Tuileries the habits they had acquired at the Palais Royal.
Under the July Monarchy, the tables de famille systematically adorned the apartments of the King, the Queen, and their children, the Orléans family having opted for a more 'grand bourgeois' way of life than that subject to the rigour of the court etiquettes that had prevailed in previous reigns.
Famous paintings by Eugène Lami (1800-1890), recounting Queen Victoria's historic visit to the Château d'Eu in September 1843, allow us to get an idea of these large tables around which the masters of the place and their guests gathered to chat or play. These tables, enclosing four or eight drawers, sometimes numbered, could also be used by the Queen and the princesses to contain their works.
Two tables similar to the present table, with the same diameter, but without bronzes, are now at the Grand Trianon in Versailles. They had been delivered for this palace by Georges-Alphonse Jacob-Desmalter: the first, on May 12, 1837, for Napoleon's 'family room' which Louis-Philippe kept until the creation of the new "family room" in 1834; the second, on May 26, 1837, for the large apartments of the Trianon Palace.
A third 'family table' was delivered to the Grand Trianon of the same model but executed in ash and with a smaller top (114 cm. in diameter). On its legs it displays the same large gilt-bronze palmettes as on the present table. This small family table was placed in Queen Marie-Amélie’s bedroom at Trianon, near the Salon des Glaces, a place it still occupies today.
Born in Paris on 23 February, 1799, Georges-Alphonse Jacob-Desmalter was the son of François-Honoré-Georges (1770-1841) and Adélaïde-Anne Lignereux, daughter of the famous marchand. He began his career decorating with his father, then became a pupil of the architect Charles Percier. He finally returned to his father's workshop, then took over the management on 1 January 1825. His workshops were located on the rue de Bondy, at no 30 from 1825 to 1830, then at no 44 until 1836. They moved to no 23 rue des Vinaigriers after this date.
An excellent draughtsman, Georges-Alphonse Jacob-Desmalter provided, like his father and his grandfather before him, a large number of pieces of furniture for the royal châteaux, and was considered by his contemporaries to be one of the oldest and most venerable in Paris.
The Vicomte de la Bonninière Beaumont-Vassy recorded King Louis Philippe's routine in his memoires: “Loving work, very regular in the ordinary habits of life, Louis-Philippe got up early, enjoyed making his fire himself in winter, carefully reading the foreign gazettes, more particularly the English newspapers, without paying much attention to French newspapers, unless (which was very rare) an article had been brought to his attention. He then indulged in the private correspondence he maintained with a few people, most often representing France abroad. Then, after a frugal meal, he attended the council of ministers, or received provincial deputations, which happened frequently in the first months of the Revolution of 1830. Finally, after a more or less long walk, he took a second meal consisting of the simplest dishes, invariably the same, were soups of different kinds which the king ate successively; poultry with rice and at the end of the meal, a glass of Spanish wine. He would then stay until ten o'clock in the evening in the family drawing-room and retire to a closet to write there again until late at night. A sober, regular, intelligently distributed life that Louis-Philippe had led at the Palais-Royal and that he continued at the Tuileries until the end of his reign”. (in Édouard Ferdinand de la Bonninière Beaumont-Vassy (vicomte de), Les salons de Paris et la société parisienne sous Louis-Philippe Ier, Paris, 1866, p. 186-187)
According to the inscription still visible in one of the drawers, the table was offered by Louis-Philippe’s successor, Napoleon III, to Julie Charlotte Pauline Zénaïde Laetita Désirée Bartholomée Bonaparte, Marquise de Roccagiovine and French princess, born on June 6, 1830 at Villa Paolina, in Rome. Cousin of the Emperor Napoleon III, she was a personality of the Second Empire, known in particular for her literary salon. Daughter of Charles Lucien Bonaparte and his wife Zénaïde Bonaparte, she was thus the granddaughter of two of Emperor Napoleon I's brothers, Lucien and Joseph Bonaparte. On August 30, 1847 she married Alessandro Del Gallo (1826-1892), Marquis of Roccagiovine in Rome with whom she had five children.
In her hotel, at 142 rue de Grenelle-Saint-Germain, she held an important literary salon every Friday evening, frequented by the Empress Eugénie, and competing with that of Princess Mathilde, her cousin. Among those who regularly frequented this circle were Ernest Renan, Charles-Augustin Sainte-Beuve, Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly and Adolphe Billault, as well as many ministers, diplomats and senior civil servants. At the fall of the Second Empire, Julie Bonaparte retired to her palace in Rome, located by the forum, where she died on October 28, 1900.
Known as the "Hôtel Bonaparte" when it was inhabited by the Marquise de Roccagiovine and her family during the Second Empire, the current hotel of the Swiss Embassy in Paris, located at n° 142 rue de Grenelle, was built for Abbé Chanac de Pompadour by the architect Alexis Delamair in 1705, and later occupied by Baron Pierre-Victor de Besenval (1721-1794).