Large Boulle marquetry cartel and console table with BERAIN- - Lot 132

Large Boulle marquetry cartel and console table with BERAIN-style engraved brass decoration on red tortoiseshell backgrounds. It is adorned with a rich chased and gilded bronze trim featuring a crowning putto, a female figure in front, caryatids and rocaille. The brass dial with enameled cartouches is signed by GUDIN in PARIS. Movement signed GUDIN. Paris. Louis XV period. H_122 cm W_48 cm. (Partly later decoration. Pendulum and stamp present). Jacques-Jérôme Gudin, known as "Gudin l'aîné". Son of watchmaker Jacques Gudin, he was one of the most important Parisian watchmakers during the reign of Louis XV. After becoming a master in 1750, he set up his workshop on the Quai des Orfèvres from 1769 to 1784 (see Tardy, Dictionnaire des horlogers français, Paris, 1971). He quickly gained a reputation among the great Parisian connoisseurs of the time, and appears to have worked for Lazare Duvaux, the jeweler-merchant of Louis XV and his favorite, the Marquise de Pompadour. In the 18th century, some of his clocks are mentioned in the after-death inventories of Louis prince de Bauffremont, the wife of Charles Jean-Baptiste Dutillet marquis de Villarceaux and Anne-Nicolas-Robert de Caze, former fermier-général to His Majesty. Expert: Stéphane Pepe