Console table, one of a pair, French or Flemish, 1790-1800

Console table, one of a pair, of carved wood, now painted white, the base composed of the figure of a man and a woman holding hands, supporting a circular drum with carved frieze, the circular top of brown marble.
The two tables form a mirrored pair. On this table the female figure is to the right, on its pair (W.14B-1963) the female is to the left. The figures are carved naturalistically in their upper parts, with scrolls of foliage below each encasing a square-sectioned scrolling leg, ending in a hoof foot, joined low down by a collar carved with overlapping ornament. The figures have small scrolls emerging from their backs like tails. The figures hold hands in the centre. Their other hands are upraised to support the drum section that rests on their heads. This has a deep, rectangular apron panel at front and back, that on the front with a more complex version of the carved scrolls that decorate the frieze all the way round, that on the back plain and set with two large iron angle brackets that would have been embedded in the wall to support the table. Below the drum is a large element of inverted, bell shape, the lower part carved with upright laurel leaves, with a leaf-wrapped finial below. The table is now painted white. The brown marble top shows a cavetto (concave) moulding on the top edge.
The table shows a deep crack at the joint between the inverted bell-shape section and the drum. One foot is broken off.

Given by an anonymous donor

When this table and its pair (W.14B-1963) were acquired, they carried several layers of paint, with a top coat of turquoise paint. One under layer was bronze colour. The current white paint was applied by the Conservation Department of the V&A.

It is difficult to know how these were placed in a room. At first sight it seems likely that they would have been set in two corners of a room, but the angle-irons at the back of the tables would need to be fixed into a straight wall.

This table and its pair (W.14B-1963) may have been designed for the corners of a room, to hold candelabra. They are very strongly sculptural and must have been made for a room with a sophisticated programme of neo-classical decoration. Unfortunately nothing is known of their history and it is not clear where they were made, although France or the Southern Netherlands seems the most likely place for their making.

W.14A/1 to 3-1963