Furniture

Louis XVI Painted and Part-Gilded Wood Console Table
French, circa 1775
Height: 33 ¾ inches (86 cm)
Width: 46 inches (117 cm)
Depth: 21 ¼ inches (54 cm)
Marks (in soft blue pencil):
-On top apron and strut, KKU 929
-On top strut, AR 606/IM 1259
-Underside of marble, Kisbe 187 AR3513

Provenance: Baron Alphonse de Rothschild, Vienna Baroness Clarice de Rothschild, Vienna and New York (restituted)

Literature: “Menuiserie: The Carved Wood Furniture of 18th Century France” by Penelope Hunter-Stiebel, Rosenberg & Stiebel, 1986, pp. 70-71, illustrated

The apron is finely carved with a frieze of husks and pearl swags centering on a rosette with additional rosettes at the corners. The tapering faceted legs are carved with reeding and an acanthus and husk collar below a spool ringed with pearls, and have leaf clusters above the feet. They are joined by an elaborate stretcher edged with pearls. It supports two cassolets and a taller flower vase at the center containing a bouquet of roses. The center vase is carved at the front with the head of a bearded man. Figures of winged children with looped fish tails form handles. Oak leaf garlands are swagged through the handles of the cassolets and link them with the center vase. The carving on the present console has been compared to that on the Lit à la Polonaise dating circa 1775-178 in the J. Paul Getty Museum. The blue pencil numbers are Nazi inventory marks.