10308 A French Louis XIV marquetry centre table, the centre with birds and a vase of tulips, roses and carnations, resting on a shelf with scrolling branches, within a border of scrolling acanthus and flower heads, the frieze with a drawer and similarly decorated, standing on turned and twist legs, joined by a shaped H stretcher with further marquetry decoration, and on bun feet.
French, style of Thomas Hache, Grenoble
1690
Width: 41.75 ins (106 cms)
Height: 29.25 ins (74.5 cms)
Depth: 27.25 ins (69 cms) Sold
Description
The style of decoration of the top of this centre table shows the first phase of floral marquetry introduced under the reign of Louis XIV. Cabinetmakers from Germany and Holland, frequently Protestant, were attracted to Paris in the middle of the 17th century, bringing with them the new techniques of veneering and inlaying of the highest quality. The initial pictorial styles can be traced directly to flower paintings of Dutch masters, only later developing into finer, arabesque designs which became known as “Boulle” style after the great Parisian family workshop.
The Hache family are first noted in Calais, probably originally from Holland. Noel Hache (1630-1675) trained as a cabinetmaker, likely in the Paris workshop of a Dutch Protestant craftsman, ending his journeyman status in the city of Toulouse, being received as master in 1666. His son Thomas (1664-1747) trained in his family workshop following the death of his father and transferred to Paris, probably to the workshop of the great Pierre Gole, the masterful Dutchman who worked for the Crown. Though there is no record of this connection, the style and technique of Thomas’s work indicate an intimate knowledge of Gole’s known output. Close family and religious connections were a factor of achieving apprenticeships, and would make this route likely.
Thomas settled in Champery in 1689 and then Grenoble in 1693, from where he founded the most important cabinet making dynasty outside Paris.