A CARVED AND SILVERED CONSOLE TABLE

This boldly carved and silvered Rococo table is after a design by the celebrated Belgian-born Bavarian designer and architect François de Cuvilliés (d. 1768) who was instrumental in bringing the Rococo style to Wittelsbach court at Munich and to Central Europe. The design relates to a table conceived for the large Baroque palace built in 1630 for the postmaster of the Holy Roman Empire, Baron Johann Christoph von Paar. The state rooms and living quarters of the palace were re-modelled between 1765 and 1771 for Count Wenzel Joseph Johann von Paar but the architect Isidor Canevale (d. 1786) and the sculptor Johan Georg Leithner (d. 1785). Country Life photographed the present table in 1938 in the magnificent Rococo dining room of 5 Belgrave Square, a room inspired by de Cuvilliés' masterpiece, the Hall of Mirrors at the Amalienburg in the park at Nymphenburg, built 1734-39, the most ornate of princely pleasure houses (Christopher Hussey, '5 Belgrave Square, London', Country Life, 26 February, 1938, p. 223, fig. 2). Between 1738 and 1756, de Cuvilliés published fifty-five books of designs for interior decoration, wall panelling, ceilings, furniture, wrought-iron work, and other decorative objects, and these engravings were important for disseminating the Rococo style throughout Europe. Two engravings for tables by de Cuvilliés, dated 1745, are in the Maciet Collection (Série Graveurs et ornemanistes) at the Bibliotéque Des Arts Décoratifs, and reflect the designer's extravagant and fluid style (no. M5053MA_ORNX03X0052). A pair of commodes after a design by de Cuvilliés, again exhibiting the designer's flamboyant Rococo skills can be found at the Getty Museum, (no. 72.DA.63).