AFTER A DESIGN BY RICHARD DE LALONDE AND POSSIBLY SOUTHERN FRANCE, CIRCA 1775

This console was executed after a design by Richard de Lalonde, now in Berlin, reproduced in Die Französichen Zeichnungen der Kunstbibliotek, Berlin, 402. HD2 3629. The triple addorsed claw feet appear on another drawing by Lalonde also in Berlin, reproduced op. cit. HD2 3628. Lalonde, like Delafosse, was one of the most talented ornamental designers of the Louis XVI period and was repeatedly commissioned to execute projects for the royal residences. For instance, Salverte mentions drawings for consoles intended for the King's games room at Saint Cloud, that are dated 1788, see F.J.B. Watson, Le Meuble Louis XVI, Paris, 1963, pp.80-81. For a console table also probably from a design by Richard de Lalonde in the Musée du Louvre, see C. A. Packer, Paris Furniture by the Master Ebénistes, Newport, 1956, fig. 200. Other comparable console tables with the same bases and large-scale volutes were sold Christie’s, London, 12 December 2002, lot 30. A 1789 drawing by Claude-Antoine Colombot features a design for a console table of the same form that was conceived en suite with a larger table sold Christie's, New York, 23 October 1998, lot 168. These tables were supplied in 1789 as part of a panelled salon to François-Gabriel Chappuis de Rosières, Président of the Franche Comté parliament (1763-1814), for his hôtel in Besançon, South-East France. Colombot was a Parisian architect well-known for his fine neoclassical work. His drawing of the console table for the hôtel de Rosières was based directly on Lalonde's design. Interestingly, the use of poplar in this console table suggests a non-Parisian, possibly Southern French, origin.