The superb quality of the carving of these consoles, probably designed to harmonise with the boiseriesof a panelled salon, points to one of the foremost menuisiersof the day, such as Georges Jacob (maîtrein 1765), or Jean-Baptiste Claude Sené (maîtrein 1769).

Designed in the Louis XVI 'antique' manner, these corner consoles, together with their original companion demi-lune console tables (sold The Alexander Collection: French Furniture, Boxes & Porcelain, Christie's, New York, 30 April 1999, lot 78, $310,500 including premium) relate to the swagged and garlanded ornamentation 'dans le Goût pittoresque' popularised by the architect and designer Jean-Charles Delafosse in his Nouvelle Iconologie Historique, 1768.
Their delicately-carved details, such as the pierced acanthus arabesques, also recall the celebrated designs for consoles by Richard de Lalonde, reproduced in Die Französischen der Kunstbibliothek, Berlin, 402.HB2 3629. Lalonde, like Delafosse, was one of the most talented ornemanistesof the Louis XVI period and was repeatedly commissioned to execute projects for Royal residences.

A console table of closely related design and ornament was originally one of a pair first recorded at Fontainebleau in 1796, and now in the Musée du Louvre (B. Pallot, Furniture Collections in the Louvre, Dijon, 1993, no.50, pp. 144-7). A pair of giltwood corner consoles displaying an almost identical rinceauxfrieze to the present pair was offered Christie's, London, 7 December 2006, lot 124, while a further pair of console tables with matching legs and frieze was sold Tajan, Paris, 10 December 1989, lot 175 (FF500,000 including premium).