Restoration of a Regency period games table converted into a desk, resting on four cabriole legs. It is veneered with thick amaranth leaves. It opens with two side drawers, known as "chétrons," and a removable top, secured by a push-button mechanism. This top is lined with leather on its face and, on the reverse, with a checkerboard veneered in ebony and inlaid with ivory. When the top is removed, it reveals a backgammon set in ebony and ivory. The molded astragal surrounding the top is made of solid amaranth wood. The legs and stretchers are beech, the panels are softwood.
This multi-purpose table serves as a small desk, or even a cabaret table. Its primary function is as a games table: cards, checkers, chess, and backgammon. It's worth noting that in the first half of the 18th century, the same 64-square checkerboard was used for both checkers and chess.
The piece of furniture is adorned with gilt and chiseled bronze ornamentation: an important mascaron of Ceres on each of the front bands, four corner drops decorated with cartouches, shells, egg-and-dart and reticulated backgrounds, four enveloping feet known as "in slipper" decorated with palmettes and acanthus scrolls, and finally two small drawer pulls with rosettes.
François LIEUTAUD (1665 – 1748)
A cabinetmaker originally from Marseille, he received his master's certificate in Paris at the end of the 17th century. He was active during the reign of Louis XIV and the Regency. He worked within the privileged confines of the Saint-Jean-de-Latran cloister, and Louis XIV granted him the rare privilege of creating and crafting the bronze mounts for his furniture. He collaborated with Noël Gérard (who was also a mercer), as well as with Charles Cressent and even André-Charles Boulle (who appointed him as his personal expert during a trial in 1719). He founded a dynasty of cabinetmakers, as his son Charles and his grandson Balthazar (famous for his regulator clocks) practiced the same craft. His stamp, bearing the simple initials "FL," long kept him unknown to art historians. Yet, he ranks among the greatest cabinetmakers of his time.
Bibliography
- French Cabinetmakers from Louis XIV to the Revolution – Editions du Chêne – 1989 – Alexandre Pradere
State of affairs report
This games table arrived at the workshop in fairly good condition. There were some missing veneers, one leg gnawed by wood-boring insects, some peeling of amaranth and ivory veneers, and above all, a backgammon board badly damaged by the warping of the base it is made of.
The Restoration
The bulk of the work involved dismantling the piece of furniture to access the backgammon board, removing its marquetry, and re-supporting it. We replaced the few missing amaranth veneer pieces with new veneer that was sawn, scraped, sanded, and cut to the correct thickness as a backing. This way, we didn't have to disturb the existing golden patina of the amaranth.
We removed the old varnish using a stripper suitable for furniture restoration, which preserves the underlying finish. This allowed us to achieve a polish as described by André-Jacob Roubo in his 1772 work. The art of the cabinetmaker – Pages 857 to 853, in order to try to be as close as possible to the original finish of this piece of furniture.
Son and grandson of journeyman carpenters, received as a Master in Paris, André-Jacob ROUBO bequeathed to us the monumental treatise on woodworking which is still authoritative today.
Considered the "bible" of the cabinetmaker, the ROUBO sets out the state of technical knowledge of a trade then at its peak and transmits to us the rules of an art that modern processes have not diminished in any way.
We cleaned the bronzes and entrusted the restoration of their gilding to the gilder. We cleaned the leather and reworked it with wax.
