Antique 18th Century Italian and French Stands and Tables
TABLES AND STANDS About 1730-1770
Above, a Portuguese side-table, made in the English style, about 1750.
Rococo: After French and Dutch success at end of 17thC in correcting baroque excesses by the use of straight, slightly tapered legs terminating in bun feet, the elongated S-shaped cabriole leg becomes, by 1730, universally adopted for most tables and stands.
Below a French rococo gilded console table. about 1750.
Wide variety includes gaming-tables with fold-over tops, writing-tables (see DESKS, P. 253), guedridons, etageres (stands with two or three tiers), tables ambulances (small, oval or round), tea and toilet tables. Notable Paris ebenistes: Dubois, van Risen Burgh, Criaerd, Roussel. Dining-tables, however, even in chateaux, still plain and square-legged in farmhouse manner, were covered at mealtimes with fine napery.
Carved and gilt side-tables, especially by Corradini, Venice, retain opulence of baroque, but render it with lighter touch; supports are ornate versions of cabriole leg with sculptural details, e.g. console table in Royal Palace, Stockholm, designed by French-trained architect Harleman about 1750, and one for the Resident, Munich, designed by Civillis, made locally by Pichler, 1761.
Dressing-table of the King of Poland, 1769.
In Holland, tripod tables have three cabriole-curved feet splaying from central stem; drawers in side-tables have bombe-shaped drawer-fronts.
Veneered types: Exotic woods, e.g. king-wood, rosewood, usually laid on oak foundation. Wide variety of woods for marquetry.
Carved types: Oak or walnut for console tables left in natural state, pine for gilding or painting. Specimen marbles for tops prized by connoisseurs in 18thC.
Dutch tripod table, mid-18MC, with painted top.
Widely adopted Louis XV type of cabriole leg is joined by mortise-and-tenon to frame with smooth, concave curve on under edge; in Holland, parts of Germany and Scandinavia (asin England), more often a convex bulge, or wing, made from separate piece of timber.
In Denmark, one type of gateleg table has main section on shaped end supports, and flat, profiled uprights of gates; another type has turned legs split down centre, separating when table is opened up.
Veneered types: Marquetry flowers, trellis patterns, landscapes. Veneer on legs arranged with grain forming chevron pattern.
Carved types: Cabriole leg itself produced by carver, edged with C-scrolls continued along ‘apron’ (front rail forming decorative frieze); legs joined by curving stretchers with carved putto (cherub) at centre.
Right, a painted and silvered Venetian pedestal, mid-18MC.
Veneered types: Varnished, sanded down, polished with wax to bring figured grain and especially marquetry to brilliant finish. Ormolu mounts.
Carved types: Oak or walnut left natural. Pine painted and/or gilded.
Lacquered types: Painted with coloured varnished (e.g. Italian lacca or French vernis Martin) in formal patterns or chinoiseries imitating oriental lacquer.
Highly sophisticated examples, especially if with marquetry, expensive. Provincial types in solid wood rather less so, but vogue for country style has pushed up prices.
19th CENTURY COPIES
Skilful 19thC copies of Louis XV tables often veneered on softwood and relatively light in weight. Authentic examples, even of nominally portable table ambulance, usually veneered on oak and surprisingly heavy to lift.
Hinged leg supporting leaf of table.
TABLES AND STANDS About 1770-1790
Neo-classical, first phase (Louis XVI): Most obvious development is abandonment of cabriole leg in favour of straight, tapered
Louis XV knitling table on end supports.
types, either square-section or turned, but process is gradual. Le gout grec – taste for classical decoration – fashionable in Paris from late 1760s, but some makers (e.g. Topino, Lacroix) retain cabriole leg with modified curves for tables ambulantes until about 1775.
In Italy, sculptural tradition persists. In 1769 Piranese published engravings of side-tables as he correctly imagines Roman ones to have been, featuring sphinx and monopodia supports (monopodium: single animal leg surmounted by head of lion or griffin). Centre table made for Villa Borghese about 1780 has marble supports carved as winged lions; another, designed by Baladier in 1789, is supported by eight bronze figures of Hercules modelled by Pacetti (Vatican library). Provincial side-tables have heavy, tapered legs.
In Germany, Roentgen’s workshops devise tables with mechanical devices operating concealed compartments that intrigue Louis XVI. Roentgen also supplies Catherine the Great with tables copied by serf craftsmen on Russian estates. Arms factory at Tula produces occasional tables in cut steel with fretted decoration.
In Austria, Viennese guild enforces high standards; members produce side-tables on rather high legs, giving stilted look.
In Sweden, narrow console tables appear even narrower than they are, because mirrors over them are often very high; Haupt’s small tables on slim turned legs reflect experience in Holland, Germany, France and England. Strong English influence on work of Iwersson and Masreliez brothers; English-type tea-tables very popular in Stockholm, also in Copenhagen. In Norway, heavier versions of Danish types.
In rural regions everywhere, functional tables of traditional type made with few acknowledgments of new style, cabriole legs continuing to be popular after 1800.
As in previous period, but with increased use of bronze and marble. Scaghola, made by mixing marble chippings with plaster and size, substitutes for pietre dure; stucco lustro —painted plaster — simulates marble (see below).
Simplified by abandonment of cabriole leg; less shaping by carver, more by turner. Otherwise, business as usual.
Carving and marquetry — acanthus, wreaths, swags, pendant husks, oval and round shields. Same motifs cast in ormolu.
Many side-tables painted, gilded. Carved oak or walnut left natural.
Scandinavian console tables usually less expensive than French or Italian, and of a size suitable for small entrance halls.
See MATERIALS, above. These were brought to level of fine art in 18thC, can easily deceive the eye but are warmer to the touch than real thing.
xix bronze medal of horticulture
goddess of fortune silver statue
bear sculpture in bronze on
magnificent large computer stand 1870
braid antique sewing haberdashery
Tags: DECORATION, English, gaming tables, Portuguese, Rococo, TABLES, tripod table, writing tables