Tripod Table

Furniture incorporating Sèvres porcelain plaques was particularly fashionable in Paris in the second half of the eighteenth century. This table was probably designed and sold by the period’s leading marchand-mercier (dealer of luxury goods), the partners Simon-Philippe Poirier and Dominique Daguerre, who received exclusive rights from the Sèvres porcelain manufactory to commission porcelain plaques for furniture. Painted with colorful cut flowers, the table’s two circular plaques are among the finest produced at Sèvres in the early 1780s. They were probably painted by Edmé-François Bouilliat (act. 1758−1810), who specialized in painting flowers and became one of the most prolific decorators of plaques for furniture. The lower plaque bears the mark of the gilder Michel Barnabé Chauvaux (known as Chauvaux aîné, act. 1752−88), who painted the tooled gold borders.