Aveline Writing Table

Details

Description

A fine flat mahogany veneer desk, constructed on a base of massive oak . Lush ornementations of chiselled features made out of guilded bronze: on the ring, motives of palmettes, stars engraved or not in a medallion, masks of Gorgon and radiant busts of Apollo, crowning the sides feet. These slide open to reveal the lock. The feet are shapes as lyres than remind the iconography of the desk ring. JACOB-DESMALTER (1770-1841), who belonged to a famous family of furniture creators, had a liking for (péitement) shaped as lyres associated to medallions in whinch the face of god Apollo was inscribed. He used several times, and in particularly for the toilet table of the Empress Josephine intended for the Tuileries and delivered in 1805, today preserved at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs of Paris repr. in J.F. Barrielle, le style Empire, coll. la grammaire des styles, Flammarion, Paris 1982, p.44). The incurved lines of the lyres belonging to the desk of Eugène de Beauharnais, as well as the claws of the lion, contribute in the sovereign elegance of this piece of furniture which dissociates itself from the more strict seriousness of the toilet table belonging to the Empress Josephine. One can admire some pieces of furnitures of JACOB-DESMALTER at the Louvre museum, the Grand Trianon in Versailles, as well as in the Castles of Fontainebleau and Compiègnes. Period: Empire, Paris 1803-1810 Given to François-Honoré JACOB (1770-1841) known as "JACOB-DESMALTER" Dimensions: height 79 cm. 2 ft 7 1/8 in. width 183 cm. 6 ft depth 113 cm. 3 ft 8 1/2 in. Provenance: - The Prince Eugène de Beauharnais's Collection (1781-1824), son of Empress Josephine, vice-king of Italy, then Duc of Leuchtenberg and Prince of Eichstatt. - The Maximilien de Beauharnais's Collection (+1852), son of the previous. - then remained in the family by decendance. Biography: The Mancel-Coti Collection contains an identical flat mahogany veneer desk.(look up Ch Massin Mobilier Directoire/Empire, p.53 repr.)

Features

• Country : FRANCE
• Style : Empire