A Pair of Bronzed Plaster and White Marble Demi-Lune Console Tables

A Pair of Bronzed Plaster and White Marble Demi-Lune Console Tables
French or Italian, Empire, early 19th century

With their dramatic sculptural presence and unmistakably Imperial bearing, this handsome pair of demi-lune console tables epitomises the high Empire aesthetic at its most theatrical. Each table presents a finely profiled white marble top of generous proportions, resting upon three magnificently modelled monopodiae—the iconic lion-head and paw supports drawn from the grammar of Greco-Roman antiquity and revived with exceptional gusto in the decorative arts of Napoleonic Europe.

The bronzed plaster bases are conceived with remarkable precision, the leonine masks richly maned and taut with neoclassical severity, descending into elongated, feathered legs that terminate in commanding clawed feet. This interpretation of the monopodium — popularised in the ateliers of the early 19th century and inspired by furniture excavated at Pompeii and Herculaneum — denotes both status and a fascination with archaeological scholarship. The effect is one of sculptural architecture: furniture designed not merely for utility but to dominate an interior with power and poise.

The expressive contrast between the crisp, cool marble and the luxurious bronzed patina of the supports recalls the Roman revival idiom that swept elite French and Italian interiors during the first decades of the 19th century. Pieces of comparable ambition were commissioned for the palaces and grand townhouses of the Napoleonic court and its circle, where the language of Empire — lions, laurel, heroic scale — served as decoration and proclamation alike.

Pairs of console tables of this scale and refinement are rare. Their mirror-image demi-lune form offers versatile but commanding placement: symmetrically flanking an entrance hall, animating a gallery wall beneath great works of art, or lending architectural rhythm to a salon. They are works conceived to anchor a room — stately, dramatic and steeped in the neoclassical imagination.

A superb and sculptural pair, encapsulating the grandeur, archaeological scholarship and stylised power that define the Empire period at its height.