A pair of Louis XV/XVI ormolu-mounted ebony corner consoles (consoles à encoignures) circa 1768

each with a later grey and white veined molded marble top, the ebony frieze outlined with ormolu borders and mounted with an ormolu frieze of foliate Vitruvian scrolls, raised on a single ebony cabriole leg headed by an accanthus leaf scroll and a ram's head, ending in leaf-cast hoof sabots.  With later tips to feet; restorations, regilt.

Delivered circa 1768 to the comte d'Orsay for the bedroom of his hôtel at 69 rue de Varenne, Paris

Robert Henry Herbert, 12th Earl of Pembroke, 19 Place Vendôme, Paris, sold, Paris, June 27, 1862, lot 46.

Lord Ronald Charles Sutherland-Leverson-Gower (1845-1916), sculptor and author and Trustee of the National Portrait Gallery, youngest of eleven children of the 2nd Duke of Sutherland.

Anonymous sale, Sotheby's, New York, October 13-15, 1983, lot 441

Anonymous sale, Christie's, New York, May 21, 1996, lot 333 (Important French Furniture from a Private Collection)

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE

Y. Christ, Le faubourg Saint Germain, 1966, pp. 300-303.

C. Baulez, Le faubourg Saint Germain - La rue de Varenne, 1981, pp. 64-74.

B. Pons, French Period Rooms 1650-1800, 1995, pp. 324-333.

These rare and unusual consoles à encoignures were made in the ultra fashionable gôut grec style for Pierre-Gaspard-Marie-Grimod d'Orsay, comte d'Orsay (1748-1809) for the first floor bedroom of his hôtel on the rue de Varenne purchased in 1768 and decorated à l'antique by Jean-Francois-Thérèse Chalgrin (1734-1811).  They were more than likely delivered by one of the count's regular suppliers such as the marchand-merciers Thomas-Joachim Hébert (d.1773) and Charles  Raymond Granchez (active from the 1760s until the 1780s). 

These consoles appear in an inventory taken after the death of the comte d'Orsay's first wife, princess Marie-Louise-Albertine-Amélie de Cröy Molembais, recorded on February 28, 1774 in the first floor bedroom:

'deux autres (consoles) en encoignure de bois d'ébène avec leurs bronzes de cuivre doré et leur dessus de marbre blanc veiné'.

This short description is elaborated upon following the seizure of the Count's possessions following the Revolution (see below).

The comte d'Orsay had acquired his house from the duc de Chaulnes in 1768.  Wealthy and ambitious, he had contracted a powerful alliance in his first marriage to the princess of Cröy Molembais, and he set about making their Paris residence one of the most elegant in the capital.  The greatly admired salon doré (part of which has been rebuilt at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington D.C. incorporating an unusual set of four carved, painted and parcel-gilt corner consoles) was furnished for the princess under the supervision of the architect Chalgrin.  D'Orsay commissioned furniture and objects in the most advanced taste from the best craftsmen of the day and by 1785 had spent some 126,800 livres, a vast sum, prompting a contemporary chronicler to remark: "This son of a financier has indulged in the arts and possesses indeed one of Paris's most striking residences to be seen for the richness, taste, luxury and idiosyncracies it contains" (Anne Eschapasse, William Beckford in Paris 1788-1814 in William Beckford 1760-1844: An Eye for the Magnificent, New Haven, 2001, Chapter IV pp.99-115).

Also in the bedroom with the present consoles was a bureau à cylindre by Jean-Henri Riesener (now in the Wallace Collection), and a bed and chairs covered in crimson and white lampas by Louis Delanois. 

The American artist, John Trumbull, who visited the hôtel on August 7, 1786 commented "Went to the house of the Count d'Orsay, said to be one of the most superb in Paris; it is in truth overloaded with elegance; the furniture is expensive and rich, to a fault; the eye can find no rest ... The picture room contains the most beautiful collection of perfect little things I have ever seen together ... Small bronze copies of the finest antique statues, the choicest porcelain, &c literally crowd every apartment" (quoted in Pons, op. cit. p. 331).

The great English collector, William Beckford had decided to take up residence in Paris and negotiated the lease of the hôtel d'Orsay in September 1788.  The comte d'Orsay had remarried, after the death of his wife, and had moved to Germany with his second wife, Marie-Anne of Hohenlohe and Waldenbourg-Bartenstein, daughter of the Crown Prince.  Beckford leased the property fully furnished at the considerable annual cost of 8,000 livres.  The lease particularly noted that the tenant was to exercise great care to "enjoy the premises .. and especially the furnishings like a responsible individual." 

Beckford remained in Paris until England declared war on France after the execution of Louis XVI.  The count being considered an émigré, the hôtel d'Orsay and its entire contents (with the exception of Beckford's own property) were seized for the benefit of the Commission des Arts.  The consoles were described in a document compiled by the painter and dealer Jean-Baptiste-Pierre Lebrun:

'93 - deux encoignures à console à dessus de marbre blanc et pieds de biche, genre de boul, hauteur 27 pouces'.  A few months later, on 2 Germinal An III, they were again mentioned when the hotel was taken over by the Commission de la Marine:

2 Petites Encoignures en forme de console d'un seul pieds en bois d'ébenne garnies en bronzes dorées, representans un tête de belier, et les dessus en marbres blanc.

The hôtel d'Orsay and part of the contents were sold to a pawn-broker and in 1799 the consoles were again listed, being located in the ninth room on the ground floor as:

"deux consoles en cul de lampe en bois d'ébène garnies de cuivre d'or couvertes de leur marbre veiné les deux consoles transportés dans le salon'.

THE EARL OF PEMBROKE

Robert Henry Herbert (1791-1862), the only surviving son of the 11th Earl of Pembroke, spent his childhood at Wilton House before marrying on August 17, 1814, against the will of his father, the Princesse Spinelli, young widow of the Prince du Butera.  Lord Herbert succeeded his father in 1827 as the 12th Earl of Pembroke.  Partly disinherited by his father, he lived in Paris before returning to London on February 14, 1833.  The sale of the contents of the 12th Earl's Paris residence on June 26, 1862 included lot 46:

deux consoles d'encoignure en bois d'ébène du temps du Louis XVI soutenues par un seul pied se terminant haut et bas par une tête et un pied du belier avec frise riche en bronze doré, tablette en griotte 2000 f.