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FINE LOUIS XVI GILT BRONZE MOUNTED MAHOGANY CONSOLES
Two fine Louis XVI gilt bronze mounted mahogany and white marble consoles attributed to Charles-Joseph Lemarchand, both of the same overall design but of differing dimensions, each with a rectangular white marble top with a three quarter pierced brass gallery over a long drawer with central escutcheon and angular drop handles above a part-gilded fluted columnar supports headed and terminated by a gilt capital and base, joined by a rectangular undertier with a shaped white marble inset supported on gilt banded fluted toupie feet
Paris, date circa 1790
The larger: Height 89 cm, width 99 cm, depth 37 cm.
The smaller: Height 88 cm, width 79 cm, depth 35.5 cm.
Literature: Pierre Kjellberg, “Le Mobilier Français de XVIIIe. Siècle”, 1989, p. 521, illustrating a Louis XVI gilt bronze mounted mahogany secrétaire by Lemarchand of similar overall angular design combined with gilt fluted columnar supports above gilt banded toupie feet.
These two consoles compare closely with the work of Charles-Joseph Lemarchand (1759-1826), whose style is distinguished by it pure forms and simple lines. In addition to the example cited in Kjellberg, ibid. they also relate to a secrétaire stamped Lemarchand previously sold by this gallery (illustrated in “Richard Redding, Masterpieces of the Past”, 200, p. 194), which again featured strict Neo-classical lines, a restrained use of gilt bronze mounts and graceful toupie feet.
The majority of Lemarchand’s pieces were made from the finest quality mahogany though sometimes he used rarer woods such as citron. As here he tended to complement his work with restrained gilt bronze mounts, although a bonheur-du-jour by him in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris features very elaborate figural mounts. Lemarchand was born in Dieppe, the son of Antoine-Adrien maître de postes from the same town and brother-in-law of the ébéniste Pierre-Michel Roussel. In 1785 Lemarchand moved to Paris in the rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honoré, Paris close to Pierre Roussel under whom he may have trained before being received as maître-ébéniste in 1789. At this date he was established in the rue du Faubourg-Saint-Antoine, where he remained until 1807 when he moved to rue du Pas-de-la-Mule. In 1791 Lemarchand received an important commission from the Garde-Meuble to supply eighteen mahogany commodes for King Louis XVI’s Château at Saint-Cloud. At the time of his marriage in 1795 his capital was valued at 80,000 livres and his furniture and chattels as 40,000 livres, which shows how important his workshop had become since being received as a maître-ébéniste.
Described as one of the last ébénistes of the ancien régime, Lemarchand continued to distinguish himself after the Revolution, when he supplied a number of furnishings to the Imperial palaces and then later to the re-appointed royal châteaux. In addition to the Garde-Meuble he received a number of commissions from important figures such as Talleyrand and possibly Murat; he also supplied work to other ébénistes including Jacob as well to the marchands-merciers such as Bonnichon. When Lemarchand retired in 1817 he handed over the business to his son Louis-Edouard (1795-1872) who had the honour of making the ebony coffin in which Napoleon’s remains were taken from St. Helena to the Invalides in Paris in 1840. Like Georges Jacob, Lemarchand was recalled from retirement, for in 1821 he received a substantial commission from the Garde-Meuble de la Couronne to supply pieces for Versailles and Saint-Cloud. Two years later he supplied a nuit-jardinière for the chambre of the duchesse de Berry and in the same year delivered two mahogany bibliothèques to the Tuileries and other pieces for the royal household. While a number of his pieces can be seen in their original situ others can be admired at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Carnavalet and Mobilier National in Paris as well as the Banque de France Hôtel de Toulouse and the Musées des Châteaux Compiègne, Fontainebleau and Malmaison.
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