LOUIS XVI MAHOGANY CONSOLE-DESSERTE 

French, 1788 

Height: 35 5/8 inches (90.5 cm)
Width: 45 5/8 inches (116 cm)
Depth: 15 7/8 inches (40.2 cm)

This console table was one of the several pieces supplied to the Comtesse d'Artois at the Pavillon de Saint-Cloud by Riesener in 1788. A document dated November 21 of 1788 states that 1000 livres remained to be paid to Riesener for this furniture. 

The central gilt bronze keyhole mount is cast as crossed laurel branches behind scrolls which support a basket of flowers and form the letter M, monogram of Marie-Thérèse de Savoie, Comtesse d'Artois. Her husband was the younger brother of Louis XVI who later ruled as Charles X.

Unlike the flamboyant Comte D’Artois, the petite and retiring Comtesse appreciated refined simplicity. Seeking a country retreat, she rented the partially furnished property of the fermier général Chalut de Vérin bordering the gardens of the château of Saint-Cloud in September of 1786. Formerly called the Pavillon de l'Electeur, for Max-Emmanuel, Elector of Bavaria, during the tenancy of the Comtesse, who fled France in 1789, it was known as the Pavillon de Saint-Cloud. Here she escaped the formality of court, to spend time with her children and selected guests. She undertook little by way of renovation with the exception of repainting the rooms in white and hanging the walls with printed fabric.

A number of previously purchased mahogany pieces by Mathieu-Guillaume Cramer were sent out to the Pavillon de Saint-Cloud from the Artois garde-meuble, but the purchase of furniture from Riesener was extremely unusual. It must reflect the taste of the Comtesse herself as Riesener had not previously been patronized by the Comte in all his extensive commissions. In this Marie-Thérèse was emulating her sister-in-law, Marie-Antoinette, who continued to order from the great cabinetmaker even after his replacement as ébéniste du roi by Guillaume Benemann in an attempted economy measure on the part of the King's administration.