A PAIR OF LOUIS XV GILTWOOD CONSOLE TABLES

These exuberantly carved console tables, with bold double-scrolled legs joined by a pierced stretcher integrating winged dolphins, closely relate to the oeuvre of François Roumier (1701-1748). Appointed sculpteur ordinaire du roi in 1721, Roumier was famous for this type of furniture and published a number of books such as the Livre de plusieurs Desseins de Pieds de Tables en Consoles, which was published after his death in 1750. Working for most of the royal residences, Roumier’s masterwork is a magnificent carved table supplied in 1737 for the cabinet doré in Louis XV’s private apartments in Versailles (VMB 1034.3). A closely related pair of giltwood consoles by Roumier, dated to around 1740, are now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1972.284.5 and 1972.284.4). Like the consoles here offered, the supports of the Metropolitan pair take the form of double C-scrolls, and are carved with four dragons - two flanking the central pierced apron cartouche and two others on the feet - similar to the one's found to the stretcher of the present pair. The distinctive feature of the winged dolphins, emblematic of the Dauphin, the title given to the heir apparent to the throne of France, suggest the present consoles were part of an important and perhaps even royal commission. Executed circa 1735, they would have been executed in the years shortly after the birth of Louis, Dauphin of France, son of Louis XV and Queen Marie Leszczyńska, who was born in 1729. A related pair of consoles, carved with the same winged dolphins to the upper supports and central stretcher, were offered at Sotheby's, London, 19 April 2012, lot 22.