Pair of French Giltwood Console Desserte / Console Tables of Regence Style, Last Quarter 19th Century by Leys, Paris

Each carved with central cherub heads,acanthus foliage & stylised shells on a lattice ground. The legs also carved to the rear. All carved wood,no composition (plaster) elements. Mirrored glass and bead covered embroidered lace inserts, with later Italian Breccia Pernice marble tops. Each table stamped five and six times "Leys A Paris" for a related pair by Leys. Dynamic and thoroughly unusual pair. See Christies, The Collector, Silver and 19th Century Furniture, Sculpture, Ceramics & Works of Art, 14th November 2019;- Lot 681 (£41,250). Transfers, viewings, discussions, all welcomed. As an interior decorator,George Hoentschel , who was born in 1855, practiced one of the more ephemeral arts. His money — lots of it — came from his position as head of Maison Leys, the foremost interior decoration firm of turn-of-the-century Paris. He had worked his way up, starting at 12 as an apprentice in the firm’s upholstery workshop, gaining a love of carved wood and an instinct for meticulous craftsmanship. He became a connoisseur of 18th-century French furniture, which equipped him well to lead a revival of interiors redolent of pre-Revolutionary France among the superrich, a fashion that receded only in recent decades. He was virtually an architect of interiors, a sometime ceramist and a charming and sophisticated companion — one of the few men in his line of work to socialize with clients. He was, as well, an advocate for design who assembled and sometimes even sponsored pavilions for international expositions in Paris and the United States. Hoentschel was also an amateur curator. For business, but evidently also for pleasure, he accumulated vast amounts of furniture, painted and carved wood panels and all kinds of scraps, which he arranged densely but sensitively throughout his storerooms and residence. Many of his friends referred to these displays as his “private museum.”