An Important and Rare Louis XVI Style Centre Table

Description

An Important and Rare Louis XVI Style Gilt-Bronze Mounted Mahogany Centre Table, By Henry Dasson.

Signed and dated ‘henry Dasson. 1878’ to the gilt-bronze of one leg. Stamped to the wood of the underside ‘Henry Dasson 1878′.

This elegant and very rare centre table or guéridon, is designed in the ‘goût Weisweiler’ and is of exhibition quality, with superb gilt-bronze mounts. The table has its original Granito Nero top above a stiff-leaf cast gilt-bronze rim. The frieze is set to one side with a drawer. Each of the four sides has a gilt-bronze mount sculpted with trophies representing attributes of the four seasons. The top is supported on finely cast and chiselled alternating male and female term figures. The legs are joined by an interlaced stretcher centred by a thyrsus finial. Raised on spirally-fluted feet.

France, Dated 1878.

The present table is dated 1878 when Henry Dasson was complimented as ‘an artist of the best title’ for his magnificent contribution of furniture and works of art to the Exposition Universelle in Paris. Henry Dasson was especially admired for the quality of his gilt-bronze work which was so finely cast and detailed with mercury gilding that it has often been mistaken for the best 18th century work.

The Neoclassical style was much favoured by Dasson and the design of this table is inspired by the celebrated furniture of Louis XVI’s master cabinetmaker Adam Weisweiler. The fashion for the Louis XVI style and the ‘goût Weisweiler’ had been revived during the Second Empire by Empress Eugénie, who was nostalgic for the lost glory of France’s golden age before the revolution.

An example of this model of table by Dasson, dated 1867, was formerly in the collection of Pierre Lecoules, and is illustrated in D. Ledoux-Lebard, ‘Le mobilier français du XIXe siècle’. Another example by Dasson and dated 1884 was sold at Christie’s, London, 29 March 2007, lot 96. Henry Dasson purchased the stock and models of Charles-Guillaume Winckelsen in 1871. This model of table is known to have been made by Winckelsen who ceased trading in 1871 and sold his stock to Dasson. In turn the model is later recorded by Paul Sormani who almost certainly purchased it when Dasson ceased trading. In the first auction of Dasson’s models held in October 1894 a reference to this model of table could be No. 445 ‘Table Louis XVI, pied tête de femme et petit faune. Collection Richard Wallace’.

The likely entry for this model of table from the auction of Henry Dasson’s stock in 1894.

Interestingly, the catalogue is annotated with the sale price 210 to Sormani. It is also inscribed ‘fait de chic’ and ‘Gouthières La table V. Le D’ Omont’. This is a possible reference to the origins for this model as being made by the bronzier Pierre Gouthière (1732–1813), belonging to the Duc d’Aumont and later being part of Richard Wallace’s collection. A leading art patron, Louis-Marie-Augustin, duc d’Aumont (1709–1782) commissioned the architect François-Joseph Bélanger to design tables, columns and objets d’art with gilt-bronze mounts by Gouthière.

The present table is one of the finest examples of this model by Henry Dasson to have appeared on the market. Elegantly proportioned and with a stylish Granito Nero top, this table is a masterclass in the art of mounting furniture with gilt-bronze. In the detailing of the gilt-bronze trophies of the four seasons and the modelling of the figural legs, Dasson shows himself to be the 19th century equal of Louis XVI’s great bronze maker, Pierre Gouthière. This is a rare opportunity for a collector to acquire a definitive example of Henry Dasson’s art furniture in immaculate condition.