A Louis XVI gilt-bronze mounted, Wedgwood porcelain, mahogany, amaranth and...
with later mottled grey and white top, the frieze edged with moulded gilt-bronze border fitted to the centre with a spring-operated drawer mounted with a replaced Wedgwood blue and white plaque moulded in relief depicting An Offering to Peace, flanked by alternating flutes and berried foliage, the sides each with a spring-operated drawer, divided by plaques with roundels in beaded frames, on fluted supports headed by chased and beaded capitals, the conforming platform shelf with pierced gallery on toupie feet, the plaque with impressed upper case Wedgwood mark and monogram TL to the reserve
Height 38 1/4 in., width 65 in., depth 20 1/2 in. ; Haut. 97 cm, larg. 165 cm, prof. 52 cm
Catalogue Note:
This rare and elegant console epitomizes the fashionable à l’antique style of the last years of the ancien régime, promoted by the influential marchand-mercier Dominique Daguerre who continued the tradition of furniture mounted with Sèvres porcelain plaques as pioneered by Simon-Philippe Poirier in the 1760s.
Serving tables with frieze drawers and one or more open shelves known as consoles dessertes became a common form in the 1780s and were produced by many of the leading ébénistes of the late Louis XVI period, among them the German expatriate cabinetmaker Adam Weisweiler (1744-1820, maître 1778). Weisweiler worked for the marchand mercier Dominique Daguerre (d.1796), arguably the most important Parisian luxury goods merchant during the final years of the Ancien Régime who sourced furniture and artworks for wealthy and aristocratic collectors and connoisseurs as well as royal courts both in France and overseas, including the kings of Spain and Naples and the Prince of Wales (later George IV) in England. Through Daguerre, Weisweiler was able to supplant his fellow German-born furniture maker Jean-Henri Riesener as one of the leading suppliers to Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette after 1785, producing case furniture often decorated with expensive and exotic materials such as gilt bronze, Japanese lacquer, pietre dure hardstones and Wedgwood or Sèvres blue and white jasperware.
The taste for jasperware developed from the technique of mounting furniture with Sèvres porcelain plaques, initiated in the 1760s by Daguerre's predecessor and cousin by marriage Simon-Philippe Poirier (d.1785), who held a monopoly on acquiring plaques for this purpose from the factory and commissioned work from a small group of cabinetmakers including Roger Lacroix and Martin Carlin. Following the Eden Free Trade Agreement between France and England signed in 1786, English style and luxury items became fashionable among prominent French tastemakers, and Daguerre was able to become Wedgwood's exclusive agent in France in 1787. Weisweiler became particularly associated with furniture veneered in tropical woods like mahogany and thuya and mounted with Wedgwood plaques or medallions, such as the tulipwood and citronnier parquetry vide-poche that belonged to Empress Josephine and is now in the Wallace Collection, London (inv. F325), and a guéridon with twelve roundels representing signs of the zodiac set into the top now in the Hermitage, St Petersburg (inv. МБ-480).
Two related console tables were sold at Sotheby’s New York, 14th April 2026, lot 212 from Sam and Marilyn Fox collection, though the first was possibly formerly in the boudoir of the London residence of Victor Rothschild (sold Sotheby’s, London, 19 April 1937, lot 183), whilst the second was formerly in the collection of Eugène Kraemer (sold Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 28-29 April 1913, lot 170). A similar console desserte attributed to Weisweiler from the Duault collection and with a pierced geometric stretcher is illustrated in P. Kjellberg, Le Mobilier Français du XVIIIe Siècle, Paris, 1989, p.871. Finally, further consoles by Weisweiler mounted with similar plaques but with pierced interlaced stretchers were sold by Christie's London, 4 May 1939, lot 119 from the collection of the Earl of Rosebery, 4 December 1975, lot 83 (the plaque with the monogram TL twice), and Christie’s, Monaco, 7 December 1985, lot 85.
The Wedgwood plaque: An Offering to Peace
Founded in Burslem, Staffordshire, in 1759 by Josiah Wedgwood, Wedgwood became one of Britain's most celebrated pottery manufacturers, renowned for its technical innovation and neoclassically inspired ceramics. The central plaque is primarily modelled on Lady Templetown’s design An Offering to Peace from December 1777. However, the sacrificing nymph on the right is replaced by a figure from the Domestic Employment series (see Eliza Meteyard, Wedgwood Trio, The Buten Museum of Wedgwood, 1967, p. 201, pl. XXII).
Lady Templetown produced numerous drawings for the manufactory between 1783 and 1789, most of which depicted women and children engaged in domestic tasks, hence the generic term ‘Domestic Employment’ used by the artist to describe these series of drawings. It is one of these figures that appears to the right of the...
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with later mottled grey and white top, the frieze edged with moulded gilt-bronze border fitted to the centre with a spring-operated drawer mounted with a replaced Wedgwood blue and white plaque moulded in relief depicting An Offering to Peace, flanked by alternating flutes and berried foliage, the sides each with a spring-operated drawer, divided by plaques with roundels in beaded frames, on fluted supports headed by chased and beaded capitals, the conforming platform shelf with pierced gallery on toupie feet, the plaque with impressed upper case Wedgwood mark and monogram TL to the reserve
Height 38 1/4 in., width 65 in., depth 20 1/2 in. ; Haut. 97 cm, larg. 165 cm, prof. 52 cm
Catalogue Note:
This rare and elegant console epitomizes the fashionable à l’antique style of the last years of the ancien régime, promoted by the influential marchand-mercier Dominique Daguerre who continued the tradition of furniture mounted with Sèvres porcelain plaques as pioneered by Simon-Philippe Poirier in the 1760s.
Serving tables with frieze drawers and one or more open shelves known as consoles dessertes became a common form in the 1780s and were produced by many of the leading ébénistes of the late Louis XVI period, among them the German expatriate cabinetmaker Adam Weisweiler (1744-1820, maître 1778). Weisweiler worked for the marchand mercier Dominique Daguerre (d.1796), arguably the most important Parisian luxury goods merchant during the final years of the Ancien Régime who sourced furniture and artworks for wealthy and aristocratic collectors and connoisseurs as well as royal courts both in France and overseas, including the kings of Spain and Naples and the Prince of Wales (later George IV) in England. Through Daguerre, Weisweiler was able to supplant his fellow German-born furniture maker Jean-Henri Riesener as one of the leading suppliers to Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette after 1785, producing case furniture often decorated with expensive and exotic materials such as gilt bronze, Japanese lacquer, pietre dure hardstones and Wedgwood or Sèvres blue and white jasperware.
The taste for jasperware developed from the technique of mounting furniture with Sèvres porcelain plaques, initiated in the 1760s by Daguerre's predecessor and cousin by marriage Simon-Philippe Poirier (d.1785), who held a monopoly on acquiring plaques for this purpose from the factory and commissioned work from a small group of cabinetmakers including Roger Lacroix and Martin Carlin. Following the Eden Free Trade Agreement between France and England signed in 1786, English style and luxury items became fashionable among prominent French tastemakers, and Daguerre was able to become Wedgwood's exclusive agent in France in 1787. Weisweiler became particularly associated with furniture veneered in tropical woods like mahogany and thuya and mounted with Wedgwood plaques or medallions, such as the tulipwood and citronnier parquetry vide-poche that belonged to Empress Josephine and is now in the Wallace Collection, London (inv. F325), and a guéridon with twelve roundels representing signs of the zodiac set into the top now in the Hermitage, St Petersburg (inv. МБ-480).
Two related console tables were sold at Sotheby’s New York, 14th April 2026, lot 212 from Sam and Marilyn Fox collection, though the first was possibly formerly in the boudoir of the London residence of Victor Rothschild (sold Sotheby’s, London, 19 April 1937, lot 183), whilst the second was formerly in the collection of Eugène Kraemer (sold Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 28-29 April 1913, lot 170). A similar console desserte attributed to Weisweiler from the Duault collection and with a pierced geometric stretcher is illustrated in P. Kjellberg, Le Mobilier Français du XVIIIe Siècle, Paris, 1989, p.871. Finally, further consoles by Weisweiler mounted with similar plaques but with pierced interlaced stretchers were sold by Christie's London, 4 May 1939, lot 119 from the collection of the Earl of Rosebery, 4 December 1975, lot 83 (the plaque with the monogram TL twice), and Christie’s, Monaco, 7 December 1985, lot 85.
The Wedgwood plaque: An Offering to Peace
Founded in Burslem, Staffordshire, in 1759 by Josiah Wedgwood, Wedgwood became one of Britain's most celebrated pottery manufacturers, renowned for its technical innovation and neoclassically inspired ceramics. The central plaque is primarily modelled on Lady Templetown’s design An Offering to Peace from December 1777. However, the sacrificing nymph on the right is replaced by a figure from the Domestic Employment series (see Eliza Meteyard, Wedgwood Trio, The Buten Museum of Wedgwood, 1967, p. 201, pl. XXII).
Lady Templetown produced numerous drawings for the manufactory between 1783 and 1789, most of which depicted women and children engaged in domestic tasks, hence the generic term ‘Domestic Employment’ used by the artist to describe these series of drawings. It is one of these figures that appears to the right of the...
Estimate
Reserve
Time, Location
Auction House
