Jean-françois Hache - A Louis XVI Tablr De Salon Stamped Hache Fils à Grenoble 18th Century.

Rare small coffee table, neoclassical on all sides stamped Hache fils à Grenoble inlaid with dexterity with light and dark walnut burl, maple burl with amaranth and sycamore strings, all treated natural or stained on a walnut frame; geometric cartridges of diamond and round medallions decorated with alternating ebony and boxwood fillets in the Greek style spanned with discs on all sides, top included. This small rectangular table, on the front opens with two wide drawers, both with an Alpine pine interior. Each equipped with drawing lenses, in gilded bronze. The visible crosspieces devoid of ornaments contribute to the decorative geometry while lightening it. The whole rests on a square-section sheathed base with four sides raised with a deep central groove on each of their faces. The stamp of Jean-François Hache: Haches fils à Grenoble is struck on the edge of the bottom drawer. In the 1770s, Jean-François Hache introduced the neoclassical style to Dauphiné. Its ornaments then borrow from geometry: cubes, rectangles, circles and, above all, inimitable ovals inlaid with tinted sycamore burls or moiré beech. Gradually during this decade, anxious to follow the new taste, he would evolve his production from the fluid and curved forms of the Louis XV style to the sobriety of the lines of the neoclassicism of that of Louis XVI; our charming little table is the perfect example. Dimensions: height 74cm – width 43cm – depth 34cm. Jean-François Hache, Pierre Hache's eldest, was born in Grenoble on January 10, 1730, and became cabinetmaker to Duke Louis-Philippe d'Orléans, governor general of Dauphiné. For nearly thirty years, this master operated large workshops and stores located on Place Claveyson, and gave great growth to his business. He created furniture remarkable for the perfection of their assemblies and the original character of their marquetry, for which he mainly used burls or roots of native trees, sometimes used naturally, sometimes dyed in very bright colors. Many of its productions are kept in the families of Dauphiné. These pieces are marked HACHE FILS A. GRENOBLE, and sometimes dated by a handwritten inscription. Some also bear, under their marble tablet or in a drawer, a printed label giving the list of the multiple types of works that their author produced. Several variations of these advertisements are known. Bibliography: The Ax Dynasty by René Fonvielle, Dardelet Grenoble edition – Ax cabinetmaker in Grenoble from the Dauphinois museum Glénat edition – The Ax cabinetmakers of Grenoble by Jean-Michel Giroud and Edmond Delaye Didier and Richard edition of 1931.