This rare pair of consoles, entirely conceived in ormolu and of grand proportions, displays an imaginative blend of various motifs from the late Louis XVI period.

The crouching putti of the frieze, with their billowing drapery, are closely related to putti at the angles of a Louis XVI secretaire attributed to Beneman in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (acc. W.23:1 to 3-1958, illustrated in F. J. B. Watson, Louis XVI Furniture, London, 1973, fig. 83). A further commode attributed to Beneman with the same motif is illustrated in P. Kjellberg, Le Mobilier Français du XVIIIe Siècle, Paris, 1989, p. 60, fig. B. The spirally reeded and lion paw feet of the consoles also recall the oeuvre of the great bronzier of the late 18th and early 19th centuries Pierre-Philippe Thomire. Two guéridons attributed to Thomire and delivered to Dominique Daguerre mounted with Sèvres porcelain plaques and with identical legs but in gilt and patinated bronze and headed by sphinxes were sold Paris, Me Tajan, 20 June 2001, lot 146 and Paris, 13 December 1962, lot 213. The latter of these was probably commissioned by Paul I of Russia and was then in the collections of the Palace of Pavlovsk (illustrated 'Trésor des tzars, la Russie de Pierre le Grand a Nicolas Ier, galerie Kugel', Paris, 1998, p.68-71, no. 182).

They also recall similar putti forming the angle mounts on the commode supplied as part of a celebrated suite by Weisweiler to Maria Carolina, Queen of Naples, and now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (illustrated in F.J.B. Watson, The Wrightsman Collection: Furniture, New York, 1966, vol. I, p. 135, cat.88).

A pair of consoles of this model were formerly part of the collection of Anita O'Keefe Young, offered Sotheby's, New York, 10-12 October, lot 724. A further example with Cyrillic inscriptions and reputedly from a Russian royal residence were offered Thierry de Maigret, Paris, 12 June 2009, lot 334.