A Louis XV Carved Walnut Table à Gibier attributed to Pierre Hache, Grenoble, Circa 1745

Pierre Rouge et Françoise Rouge, Le génie des Hache, Dijon 2005, no. 206 p. 394 illus.

Pierre Hache (1705-1776) was part of the most important dynasty of cabinetmakers working in Ancien Régime France outside of Paris, begun by his grandfather Noel Hache of Calais, who worked as a journeyman throughout France before settling in Toulouse in 1657. His son Thomas (1664-1747) removed to Grenoble, where his workshop specialised in creating virtuoso inlaid surfaces using almost exclusively native Alpine woods and burr woods, the designs heavily influenced by the fashionable floral marquetry of the 17th century.

Pierre took over his father's workshop and continued to work primarily in the Louis XV style, demonstrated here to great effect by the masterfully fluid carving, particularly in the central rocaille cartouche that is both asymmetrical and tightly controlled in its composition. The marble top emanates from quarries near La Mure, approximately 35 km south of Grenoble, and is a regional variety that was used on other tables and commodes by Pierre Hache and his son Jean-François (see Pierre Rouge, Le génie des Hache, nos. 146, 147, and 205).