A very fine carved walnut console table late Régence, circa 1730

with a later moulded serpentine verte campagne marble  top, the serpentine frieze  carved with foliate scrolls, scallopshells and chimera linked by floral swags centred by an espagnolette mask, the sides with pierced scallopshells, the incurved supports headed by exhaling putto masks carved with cabochons and entwined with flowerheads joined by a scrolled cross-stretcher centred by two putti on paw feet

Sold from the Estate of the late Mrs. K. Peto-Bennett, Christie's, London 26th March 1981, lot 98
Sold Christie's, London, 10th December 1987, lot 130

The late Kiss Peto-Bennett was the wife of Wing-Commander C. Peto Bennett who was one of a four man mission who took the capitulation of the German Forces in Norway on 8th May 1945. She was also Amundsen's muse.  

Comparative Literature:
Bruno Pons, De Paris à Versailles 1699-1736, Universités de Strasbourg, 1983, pl. 512
C-P Weigandt, Le mobilier français, Régence – Louis XV, 1994, pp. 40-41

This sculptural console table belongs to a group of ingeniously designed and intricately carved tables probably executed by a sculptors of great skill in the league of Legoupil, Taupin and Degoullons active in the first and second quarters of the 18th century. The carving of the dragons, masks at the angles, central cartouche on the frieze and putti on the stretcher reflect closely the designs of François Roumier (1690/1700-1748), see Pons, op. cit., plate 512, for an engraving for a console table from François Roumier’s Livre de plusieurs Desseins de pieds de tables en console…(pl. 7), Paris, Bibl. d’Art et d’Archéologie (Cat. C*)-reproduced here in fig.1. The dragon symbol was frequently employed by Roumier and can be seen in designs for console tables illustrated by Pons in figs. 507,508, 510 & 512, op. cit.

This sculptural console, dates from the transition between the end of the Régence and the beginning of the Louis XV period. It displays the sculptural, balanced nature of Régence designs, whilst looking forward to the greater freedom and more naturalistic style of the 1730's.

It is also worth comparing a related carved giltwood console table now in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs conceived in a similar vein to this table with the central cartouche on the frieze with a mask, dragons and hoof feet reproduced here in fig. 2. 

François Roumier (d. 1748):
He was the celebrated French ornamental sculptor and furniture designer and is recorded in Paris  from 1716 onwards. In 1721, he became the sculptuer du roi and worked at the royal palaces on boiseries and other carved furniture and fittings for the next ten years  alongside although independent from Degoullons and his partners.  His carved and giltwood furniture was outstanding such as the side-table made for the Cabinet du roi at Versailles in 1730-31 and still in situ.