An important Dutch Baroque carved giltwood console table, after designs by Daniel Marot, circa 1690 - Photo Sotheby's

height 34 in.; width 75 in.; depth 33 1/2 in. 86.5 cm; 190.5 cm; 85 cm - Estimation: 60,000 - 90,000 USD

PROVENANCE: Sir Julius Wernher, 1st Bt. (1850-1912), Luton Hoo, Bedfordshire, England, by descent to his son
Sir Harold Wernher, 3rd Bt. (1893-1973), Luton Hoo, Bedfordshire, England, and thence by descent
Christie's London, Works of Art from Luton Hoo, Moyns Park and Munden, September 1998, lot 164

NOTE DE CATALOGUE: After the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 Daniel Marot (1663-1752) fled north to settle in the Hague. Marot, a Paris-born architect, furniture designer and engraver and pupil of Jean Le Pautre brought the fully developed Louis XIV style to the Netherlands and later to London. In the Netherlands, he was appointed as court dessinateur by the Stadholder, the later William III of England. He is associated with designing interiors in the palace Het Loo, near Apeldoorn. In 1694, he travelled with King William to London where his activities concentrated at Hampton Court Palace. His works, as well as his designs for furniture and textiles, have been published by Marot in his 'medals' between 1703 and 1715. It shows his model of tables in 'goût française,' which were greatly inspired and marked by creations of Charles le Brun and Jean l Bérain, especially by the motif of herms or full caryatid legs.

Characteristic elements of Marot deriving from his livres are found on the present table. These models developed by Marot broke away from this traditional Dutch ornament and introduced a fashion for architectural furniture thus far unknown. Characteristics of this console table include a perforated central cartouche, front legs in broken S-shape, the helmeted warriors, the curved shaped X-stretcher with bun feet. This table, as most of the others mentioned here under, can be easily dismantled. Each leg terminates in a block, into which the top frame and the bun feet can be fitted, while the five aprons are fixed to the frame. This particular form of construction could both help the gilder and allow for their transportation from house to house or a furniture making novelty. It is a feature also found in the construction of some very large eight-legged Louis XIV bureaux and amongst many other examples of furniture from the Netherlands.

Comparable examples all part of a closely related group of giltwood tables include:
- A table in the collection of H.M. Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands at Palace Huis ten Bosch near The Hague, see M. Loonstra, Het Huis Int Bosch, Zutphen, 1985, p. 136
- A pair of tables in the gallery of Het Loo Palace in Apeldoorn, see A. Vliegenthart, Het Loo Palace, Emmerich, 2002, p. 86, fig. 113.
- A pair of tables, in shape and decoration virtually identical to the present example, sold from the collection of Comtesse Diane de Castellane, Sotheby's Monaco, December 9, 1995, lot 116. (These tables share their unusual construction with the present table, which allows them to be entirely dismantled.)
- A parcel-gilt and blue-painted table, slightly related and reputedly executed by William Farnborough in 1692 for Queen Mary's water gallery at Hampton Court, sold Sotheby's London, July 10, 1998, lot 87.
- A pair of tables, sold Christie's London, July 5, 1984, lot 44.
- A matched pair of Dutch giltwood pier tables formerly in the collection of Mrs. Wakefield Saunders, London, sold Property of a Lady, Christie's London, June 12, 2003, lot 1110, formerly belonging to
- An important Louis XIV console 'Aux Tetes de Romain' after drawings by D. Marot, sold Koller Zurich, March 25, 2010, lot 1082. 

Sotheby's. Important English and European Decorative Arts. New York | 26 oct. 2012 www.sothebys.com