A Charles X Period Mahogany Gueridon
£2,950
SOLD
A Charles X Period mahogany gueridon, having a circular grey marble top, set upon veneered frieze above a faceted baluster stem, terminating in a triform plinth base with scrolling supports and carved lions paw feet.
Charles X, the Count d’Artois and Louis XVI’s younger brother, was born in 1757 at the Palace of Versailles. At the age of sixteen he married Marie Therese of Savoy. The couple, unlike Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, gave birth to a boy almost immediately.
After the death of Louis XVIII in 1824, Charles succeeded him as King of France. Having been a patron of the arts during the Ancient Régime, during his reign, furnishings were adapted to the tastes and needs of the new Bourgeois society. Balzac in his novels describes comfortable apartments adapted to the new focus on family life.
Regency style furniture was imported from England and the main furniture and cabinet makers of the time were the sons of Georges Jacob, Baudry, Jeanselme, and Werner.
While mahogany remained the favoured timber of the day, light coloured woods such as lemon tree, maple and the delicate elm were very fashionable too and there was a great fashion for inlay work. The marquetry was minimal: inlays of amaranth, or rosewood, dark woods that contrast with the lighter hues. Stylised clasps and palmette motives were also inlaid and fine lines underlined the structure. Table legs often rested on carved, stylised animal paw feet. The marbles used were whites, light or dark greys and black while gilding and ormolu were reduced to the minimum.
The style favoured naturalistic motifs such as foliage, palmettes and roses. Charles X furniture is also influenced by the Troubadour or “cathédrale” aesthetic which resurrects the Middle-Ages and even the Renaissance period.
The reign of Charles X, lasted six years and ended with the July Revolution and the setting up of the July Monarchy.
This table would have belonged to the wealthy Bourgeois class. Its veneer work and carving is of the highest standard and it would have been made for a grand salon, most probably in a city house.
