GALERIE LÉAGE

Galerie Léage has specialized in 18th-century furniture and art objects since 1972. Guillaume Léage is today at the head of the gallery. Heir to five generations of antique dealers, he promotes a modern and demanding vision of the 18th century and its finest craftsmen. He carefully selects exceptional furniture and art objects from the Louis XIV, Louis XV and Louis XVI periods, of royal or aristocratic origin, or with an equivalent in a museum or major private collection. These objects perpetuate the values of excellence that distinguish the “Léage taste”.

The gallery has won the trust of collectors worldwide, and curators of important museums around the globe. Many of its objects are now part of major museums’ collection. The gallery also regularly organizes exhibitions in Paris, in collaboration with renowned collectors, leading galleries and foundations specializing in ancient, modern or contemporary art.

Provenance

Commissioned in 1776 by Marie-Fortunée d’Este-Modène (1731-1803), Princess of Conti, for the Salon de compagnie of her private mansion (Hôtel du Lude), rue Saint-Dominique.

Archives Nationales, R/3/173, “Invoice by Georges Jacob, dated May 10, 1776,” Maison de Conti, Marie-Fortunée d’Este, Princess of Conti, Particular expenses (mouth, perfumery, laundry, supplies, games, lessons, chaplains, etc.): “A table leg with bracket feet of 5 1⁄2 feet length (approx. 178 cm. (70 in.) – without the marble-), 33 inches 9 lines high (approx. 92 cm. (36 1⁄4 in. ) – without the marble-) with 6 consoles richly ornamented with carving, namely oves and heart rets which make the frame of the frieze in the middle, interlaced with laurel branches, the consoles richly ornamented with acanthus leaves on the sides; with its strut ornamented with piastres with an urn in the middle and two laurel branches on each side, the whole well decorated, made of suggestion in beautiful walnut wood estimated at the sum of 380 pounds.”

Published in:

Michel Beuderley, Jacob et son temps, Saint-Rémy-en-l’Eau, 2002, p. 27.

Comparable examples

• Attributed to Jean-Louis Prieur, Table-console, clock and candelabra, for the Royal Palace in Warsaw, 1766, pen and ink drawing, University Library of Warsaw
• George Jacob, Gilded wood console with six legs, private collection
• George Jacob, Carved and painted wood console table, Louis XVI period, circa 1780, private collection
• Attributed to Georges Jacob, Four-legged giltwood console table, Louis XVI period, private collection