A FRENCH ORMOLU AND POLISHED STEEL CENTER TABLE

With its precious combination of polished steel and ormolu, this spectacular table is of almost the same design as an 18th century example sold from the collection of Hubert de Givenchy; Christie's, Monaco, 4 December 1993, lot 92, formerly in the collection of the comtes de Tournon-Simiane at the château de Montmelas and subsequently in the collection of the Selgmann family, a celebrated dealing dynasty. Very few pieces of furniture made of polished steel have survived from the 18th century, both because it was considered a novelty at the time and the preserve of the communauté des maîtres serruriers, but also because the material was difficult and complicated to work effectively, ruling out any form of mass production thereby greatly increasing the costs of manufacture. Among the few surviving examples of furniture from this period is a group of console tables of an earlier neo-classical design attributed to the little known serrurier (or locksmith) Pierre Deumier, who proclaimed himself in a 1767 advertisement 'serrurier du Roi'. This group, all consoles and of an earlier neo-classical design includes one in the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg; one in Marble House, Newport, Rhode Island (together with a later copy); and a pair sold from a Rothschild Collection; Christie's, London, 4 July 2019, lot 30. The use of steel in combination with gilt-bronze was also a leitmotif of the arms manufactory based in Tula, south of Moscow which also produced finely wrought decorative objects, but only rarely very full scale pieces of furniture.