Gilt bronze and porcelain Louis XVI style circular side table

Gilt bronze and porcelain Louis XVI style circular side table
French, late 19th Century
Height 78cm, diameter 80cm

This beautiful circular side table is designed in the Louis XVI style and wrought from ebonised wood, gilt bronze mounts, and painted porcelain plaques. The tabletop is raised by a baluster form ebonised wood column, ornately shaped and mounted with gilt bronze, which is supported by a triform base and a flanking trio of gilt bronze S-scroll buttresses.

The most striking part of this table is the tabletop, which features a series of porcelain elements and gilt bronze mounts. The centre of the ebonised wood tabletop is inset with a large porcelain dish, which is painted with a portrait of Louis XVI and a series of other smaller portraits. The edge of the circular tabletop is mounted with a gilt bronze border, which is pierced with cartouches that are inset with painted porcelain plaques that depict still more portraits. In total there are some 25 painted representations. The porcelain is decorated in the manner of Sèvres—the ground being the distinctive pale Sèvres blue.

Artist/maker: (style of) Sèvres (French, founded 1738)