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A PAIR OF ANGLO-DUTCH LATE BAROQUE BLUE-PAINTED AND PARCEL-GILT CONSOLE TABLES Probably...

Currency:USD Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:NA Estimated At:450,000.00 - 550,000.00 USD
A PAIR OF ANGLO-DUTCH LATE BAROQUE BLUE-PAINTED AND PARCEL-GILT CONSOLE TABLES Probably...
A PAIR OF ANGLO-DUTCH LATE BAROQUE BLUE-PAINTED AND PARCEL-GILT CONSOLE TABLES

Probably of a design by Daniel Marot (1661-1752), probably 1690s Each laminated rectangular coral-colored marble top above a cavetto molding and shaped pierced apron with a floral lattice pattern centered below with a shell, the scrolling edges acanthus-sheathed, the apron to each side similarly decorated, on four inswept cabriole legs with hairy acanthus-sheathed hoof feet, each set to the knee with a mask, above a lambrequin with foliate decoration, with pendant husks to the back and front, the legs joined by an X-stretcher with scrolling acanthus leaves and centered by a circular plinth with gadrooned edge 37 X 461/2 X 281/2 IN. (94 X 118 X 72 CM)

$450,000-550,000

For a thorough discussion of the possible history of these tables please see: The footnote by Adriana Turpin for a similar single table (sold Sotheby's London, July 10, 1998, lot 87, $553,606) and by the same author the article "A Table for Queen Mary's Water Gallery at Hampton Court," Apollo (January 1999), pp. 3-14.

DANIEL MAROT: STYLE, PATRONAGE, AND INFLUENCE IN HOLLAND AND ENGLAND Daniel Marot has long been recognized as the key figure in the creation and the dissemination of the court style of William and Mary in both England and Holland. However, writers have differed in the extent to which they credit Marot with specified commissions for the interiors, furniture, ceramics and silver in England, not least because of the lack of precise documentation.

Marot was perhaps the first artist in England to have a profound effect on all the decorative arts and his influence lasted well beyond the ten years he was active there. This was in part because he gathered around him a close circle of highly skilled craftsmen who understood contemporary forms and designs as well as he did. Awareness of Continental styles was not without precendent. In 1689, Christopher Wren (1632-1723) had visited Paris and thus assimilated Continental influences in his architecture while many foreign craftsmen came to England during the reign of Charles II (1660-1685) and James II (1685-1689), particularly from the Netherlands. Marot and the Huguenot artisans who came to England after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 brought a first-hand knowledge of French style and techniques which was to transform the appearance of the English interior.

Marot came from a family of architects and artisans. His father, Jean Marot, was a well-established architect in Paris in the middle of the century, while his mother came from a Dutch cabinet-making family. Published from 1654-1670, Jean Marot's books of designs consisted of views of the major buildings in Paris in the middle of the century as well as his own designs for funerary monuments, vases and other decorative items. Daniel Marot began his career following in the footsteps of his father, training as an engraver in the circle of Jean Lepautre (1618-1682) and Jean I Berain (1640-1711). In 1685, when Marot left France and went to Holland, he was taken up by William himself. Among the first works for his patron was a print of a ball at Huis ten Bosch in 1686 on the occasion of William's birthday, where he was able to demonstrate his skills as an engraver and designer. He soon took on a much more important role and was certainly involved in designing the interiors for William at Het Loo, as his published engravings of the entrance hall, dining room and library show.

In these engravings, most of which were collected and printed from 1703, Marot uses the title dessinateur du roi, which imitates practice at the French court and shows the general nature of his role. He never, however, held an official position either in the English or Dutch administration, but was employed directly by the crown. It has always been stated that he was employed by William. However, judging from payments made by the Treasury on William's death in 1702, it is clear that he was listed among the members of Mary's personal entourage. Among his published works are designs for embroidery patterns, no doubt commissioned by Mary.

Although Marot's influence is to be seen in the general approach to designs of the interiors at Hampton Court and similarities can be drawn with the interiors at Het Loo, it is very difficult to find documentary evidence to prove his direct involvement with any particular project. Even at Het Loo, most of the evidence that survives is to be found in the published engravings, done after the completion of the palace in 1703. In England, his position is even more ambiguous. It is documented that Marot was in London from 1695 when his son and, the following year, his daughter were baptised in the Huguenot church at Leicester Fields, but it is not known when he arrived in England. When he married Catherine Maria Gole in 1694 in the Walenkerk in Amsterdam, he is described as living in London, so it can be assumed that he traveled between the two countries.

There is, however, stylistic evidence for the Marot's involvment in building projects in England. There is one drawing for a ceiling with the cypher of William which could relate to ceilings at Hampton Court but it is neither dated nor need it have been intended for Hampton Court. Gervase Jackson Stops discovered a design for the gardens at Hampton Court signed by Marot and dated 1689. Arthur Lane argued cogently that tiles for Queen Mary's diary in the Water, or Thames, Gallery at Hampton Court and the Delft basin in the Victoria and Albert Museum were made to designs by Marot ("Daniel Marot: designer of Delft vases and of gardens at Hampton Court," The Connoisseur (1949)). Adriana Turpin identified a console table made in 1692 by the royal cabinet-maker William Farnborough also for the Water Gallery after designs by Marot (see above). This has remained to date the most convincing argument for Marot's role as designer at the English court at the beginning of William and Mary's reign.

One other example of Marot's direct involvement in an English project is the designing of panels for a small boudoir at Montagu House, London, for Ralph Montagu, Master of the King's Wardrobe and a notable Francophile, which is thought to date from the 1690s. Although his influence is to be seen in other houses, it has not been possible to associate this with any specific design, even at Petworth where a payment to Marot has been found.

Marot's designs for ornament evolved from the designs of grotesque ornament invented by Jean I Berain, dessinateur du cabinet et de la chamber du roi, and prior to leaving France Marot had engraved several designs after Berain. Through his designs, the repertoire of French ornament was brought to England. Moreover, they were intended to be used by craftsmen in almost every medium, including textiles, silver, furniture and ceramics. Among his designs published in 1703 are a few for furniture, which also draw on French sources. Examples of furniture based on these designs can be found in England and in the Netherlands. THE PRESENT TABLES The tables illustrated in Berain's engravings of the silver displayed at Versailles for the visit of the King of Siam in 1686 are supported on curved lion paws and there are several designs by Le Pautre or Boulle using such classical elements. However, tables with a similar curved form such as those found in the designs of André Charles Boulle (1642-1732), an example of which is the small table in the Wallace Collection (Peter Hughes, The Wallace Collection Catalogue of Furniture. Vol. II, no. 159 (F56), pp. 746-52), are generally dated between 1700 and 1710.

These elements are taken by Marot and transformed into a unique design unlike anything known in either England or France at this date. No French piece combines these shapes with the decoration of trellis pattern or the sweeping use of acanthus leaf. Nor is there any similar English furniture known to date of such originality. Most furniture associated so far with Marot has always been based on similarities to his published designs, which in their style are close to French examples. Moreover, documented pieces made for Hampton Court, such as the tables and torchères made by Pelletier for the state apartments in 1700, are almost exact replicas of their counterparts at Versailles such as those which can still be seen at the Galerie des Glaces. French influences in furniture became absorbed into the general repertoire of furniture design by the end of the 17th century, so that it is often difficult to disentangle what was specific to Marot and what was created by the craftsmen, many of whom had also been trained in France
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