A Louis XV Carved and Parcel Gilt Grey Painted Table à Gibier, South of France, mid-18th

with an early 19th century double-moulded grey-veined white marble top; painting refreshed

height 32 1/2 in.; width 56 in.; depth 27 3/4 in.

82.5 cm; 142 cm; 70.5 cm

Provenance
Marie Louise Amélie Berton des Balbes de Crillon, Duchesse de Polignac (1823-1904), Hotel Crillon, Paris; thence by descent

Christie's Paris, 4-5 May 2011, lot 286

Catalogue note
Constructed by the architect Louis-François Trouard in 1775 on the northwest side of the Place Louis XV (now Place de la Concorde), behind a façade designed by Ange-Jacques Gabriel identical to that of the adjacent L'hôtel de la Marine, what is now the L’Hôtel de Crillon [fig.1] was first inhabited by the Duc d'Aumont (1709-82), the Intendant des Menus Plaisirs du Roi, who stored his celebrated collection of gilt-bronze mounted vases and objects in the salons designed by the neoclassical architect Pierre-Adrien Pâris. In 1788 the building was sold to Félix de Berton des Balbes de Crillon, Comte de Crillon (1748-1820), and following its confiscation during the French Revolution was restituted to the Comte de Crillon in 1810 and would later be inherited by his granddaughter Amélie de Crillon [fig.2], who in 1842 married Jules Armand, Duc de Polignac. The Duchesse resided in the house until her death, after which the property was sold to be converted into a luxury hotel. A set of painted and parcel gilt wall paneling with arabesque decoration designed by Pierre-Adrien Pâris for one of the Hôtel de Crillon's boudoirs is now in the Metropolitan Musuem, New York.