A LOUIS XV GILTWOOD CONSOLE TABLE

This exuberantly carved console, lavish with naturalistic carving, demonstrates the triumphant height of the rococo style achieved in the mid-eighteenth century. In its sense of movement and overall form, with foliate-wrapped pierced S-scroll legs, pierced symmetrical apron and pieds en rouleau, this table displays the influence of the architect Pierre Contant d'Ivry. D'Ivry is perhaps most celebrated for his designs for the Palais Bernstorff in Copenhagen, which were executed by the menuisier Nicolas-Quinibert Foliot circa 1755. This commission included related consoles grafted with the first stirrings of neoclassicism, see Bill Pallot, The Art of the Chair in Eighteenth-Century France, Paris, 1989, pp. 152-166.

One of the most influential designers working in the rococo style, Pierre Contant d'Ivry (1698-1777) held the title of Architect to the King and worked for a rich and influential clientele. Highly regarded by his contemporaries, Contant d'Ivry's work was prized for its temperate approach to the excesses of the asymmetrical rococo style, which by mid-century were fading from fashion in favor of a more classical restraint.