A Louis XVI ormolu-mounted mahogany console circa 1785, stamped F.J. Papst

with a D-shaped brocatelle d'Espagne marble top above a frieze drawer flanked by compartments, the lower part with a deep drawer also flanked by conforming compartments, raised on baluster-shaped spirally fluted supports joined by a concave-fronted platform stretcher above tapered legs; the frieze mounted with ormolu foliate rinceaux, the whole outlined with ormolu leaf tip borders. With ink inscription at the back Sel 224.

François Ignace Papst was one of the successful Parisian cabinet-makers who was of German descent.  He received commissions from the Garde-Meuble de la Couronne and supplied furniture for a number of royal residences including, Fontainebleau, Compiègne, Versailles and Rambouillet.  His business managed to survive the Revolution and he supplied furniture for notable Parisians during the Empire period.  Much of the work of Papst is executed in mahogany and fitted with simple, refined, ormolu borders.  The present console which is of slightly unusual form may have been a specific commission. It can be compared with a bonheur du jour by Papst, of slightly unconventional oval form and fitted with a concave-fronted platform stretcher (illustrated, P. Kjellberg, Le Mobilier Français du XVIIIe Siècle, Paris, 2002, p. 679).  Identical ormolu mounts incorporating female terms are found on a Louis XVI console, unstamped, and probably formerly in the collections of the Dukes of Parma, sold, Christie's, New York, May 22, 2002, lot 344.