A PAIR OF DIRECTOIRE ORMOLU AND PATINATED-BRONZE SIDE TABLES

Clearly inspired by ‘Antique’ or Roman metal furniture, these precious etagere tables are conceived entirely in gilt and patinated bronze with white marble tiers. Their design relates to that of a group of elegant ormolu gueridons, almost certainly provided by the celebrated marchand-mercier Dominique Daguerre, whose innovative 'arabesque' and 'Etruscan' furniture gained him much acclaim in the late 18th Century. Daguerre developed the latter type circa 1785, as the sale of M. Bergeret on 24 April 1786 lists one example with a porphyry top: ‘388 Une table de porphyre, ronde, suportée par un pied en bronze à trois consoles à bandeaux, a baguettes dorées, & anneaux; le tout lié par doubles baguettes de forme triangulaire. Hauteur 26 pouces, diametre 14 pouces.’ The table was sold for 340 livres to M. Letoffé. In the last years of the 18th Century, Daguerre subsequently developed other versions including a more solid type of gueridon with reeded legs and a circular undertier matching the top. In 1805, Jacob-Desmalter supplied an example of this model for the Salon des Glaces at the Grand Trianon (D. Ledoux-Lebard, Inventaire General du Musée de Versailles et des Trianons, vol. I, 1975, pp. 40-41).