Lot 109: A LOUIS XV ORMOLU-MOUNTED TULIPWOOD, AMARANTH, EBONY AND IVORY PARQUETRY TABLE A JEU**

In the manner of Guillaume Kemp The removable rectangular top veneered on one side to form a chessboard and to represent dice, cards and chips, the reverse veneered to form jeu de l'oie, the interior veneered to form backgammon board; the frieze fitted with two drawers, raised on cabriole legs, remounted 293/4in. (75.5cm.) high, 31in. (78.75cm.) wide, 241/2in. (62cm.) deep PROVENANCE Georges Wildenstein, East 64th Street, New York. M. Akram Ojjeh, sold Sotheby's Monaco, 25-26 June 1979, lot 183. LITERATURE G. Wannenes, Le Mobilier Fran/cais du XVIIIe Si/gecle, Milan, 1998, p.114. NOTES Such elegant games-tables exemplify the passion for games of all types in 18th Century France. It was the main indoor pastime of Louis XV's court and indeed the duc de Luynes, chronicler of daily life at Court, would actually record the rare days when the King did not play. The games featured here, played by members of the Court and the landed aristocracy, provide a fascinating insight into mid-18th Century French society. Being games of chance they bear a striking similarity to board games on the market today. However, their function was often more educational. The livre-journal of the celebrated marchand-mercier Lazare Duvaux records numerous games-tables sold between 1748 and 1758, designed for particular games such as piquet, brelan, quadrille and trictrac. Related tables include that by Guillaume Kemp in the collection of the Marquess of Bath at Longleat house, Wiltshire; another sold anonymously, Christie's Monaco, 5 December 1992, lot 75 (illustrated in N. de ReyniŠr, Le Mobilier Domestique, Paris, 1987, p. 393, fig. 1411); another, stamped P‚ridiez ( mƒitre in 1738), was sold Ader-Picard-Tajan, Monaco, 17 March 1988, lot 96, and is illustrated in P. Kjellberg, Le Mobilier Fran‡ais du XVIIIe SiŠcle, Paris, 1989, p. 637 and in P. Verlet, Les Meubles Fran‡cais du XVIIIe SiŠcle, Paris, 1982, fig.126.