CIRCA 1720-30

This sculptural console with female caryatid supports with floral headdresses dates from the transition between the end of the Regence and the beginning of the Louis XV period. It displays the sculptural, balanced nature of Regence designs whilst looking forward to the greater freedom and more naturalistic style of the 1730's. The use of female caryatids and deeply incurving support relates to the designs of the ornemaniste Nicolas Pineau (1684-1754), one of the most influential designers of the period and generally credited as one of the originators of the "Genre Pittoresque." Designs for similar consoles by Pineau, many of which were published in his lifetime, for instance, in Mariette's, "Architecture A La Mode," are illustrated in T. Strange: "French Interiors, Furniture, Decorations," London, 1950, 3rd ed., p. 230. A closely related pair of consoles, formerly in The Madame Burat, Wrightsman and Wendell Cherry Collections was sold anonymously at Christie's London, 13 June 2002, lot 243.