A LATE LOUIS XV BOIS SATINE AND AMARANTH DEMI-LUNE GAMES-TABLE

This table à jeux was almost certainly part of the furniture provided for the new Dauphine Marie Antoinette after her marriage in 1770. Possibly conceived for one of the officer's messes it bears the distinctive brands of the garde-meuble. The crowned GR brand was identified only in 1991 as the mark used by the garde-meuble as early as 1774. The introduction of this brand coincides with the King's gift of the Petit Trianon to Marie Antoinette.The circular brand on the veneered back was identified in the late 19th Century and was applied to her personal furniture after 1784. The introduction of this brand coincided with a reorganisation within the garde-meuble. The letters that accompany the GR brand refer to the individual château, in this case Versailles.

The GR mark has been recorded on the following pieces of furniture:
1.The porcelain jewel-coffer stamped by Carlin and supplied to the Dauphine in 1770. It was most recently sold from the collection of Roberto Polo, Ader Tajan, Paris, 17 November 1991, lot 153 (together with the letter 'F' for Fontainebleau)
2.A table by Topino in a private collection, branded GR and VV (for Versailles), the circular garde-meuble brand, a large Versailles brand, and inventory numbers.
3.A coiffeuse by Oeben in a private collection that was almost certainly supplied initially to the Dauphine Marie-Josephe de Saxe and used after her death by her successor, Marie-Antoinette (again with the Fontainebleau mark).
4.The extraordinary table with a top made of petrified wood that is now at Versailles and which was a present from the Empress Marie-Thérèse to Marie Antoinette in November 1770.