A Louis XVI mahogany and ebony tric-trac table signed Ancellet

A LOUIS XVI ORMOLU MOUNTED, IVORY INLAID MAHOGANY AND EBONY TRIC TRAC TABLE
SIGNED DENIS-LOUIS ANCELLET, PARIS BY 1780
The rectangular removable top, inset with tooled leather to one side and baized to the other, enclosing an ebony gaming well, inlaid with green-stained and ivory, removable slide below inset inlaid with yew and fruitwood chess-board to one side and chequer-board to the other, the ends with frieze drawers, on four tapering turned and stop-fluted legs, stamped twice 'D. L. ANCELLET' and with 'JME'; together with a pair of associated silver plated candle sconces, fifteen ebonised and fifteen boxwood gaming counters, four bone dices, twor dice cups, a complete ivory Selenus chess set and 24 French 1816 playing cards.

Ouvrier-libre in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine in the early 1760s, Denis Louis Ancellet was awarded the title of Master on December 3, 1766, and served as a deputy or administrator of his guild in the final years of the Ancien Régime. After residing on rue de Charenton, he transferred his business to rue Saint-Nicolas around 1780. His stamp was sometimes associated with that of other cabinet-makers such as Adam Weisweiller, with whom he seems to have collaborated, and his production, essentially made up of mahogany furniture, included a large number of game tables, like the one presented here, of which he was one of the specialists.
Ancellet's most beautiful game tables are distinguished by the removable chess and checkerboard, which is placed in the center of the tabletop and transforms the backgammon table into a chess or checkers table.
In the spring of 1791, when Louis XVI was planning to move to Saint-Cloud with the court, Ancellet received an order from the Garde Meuble de la Couronne for some sixty pieces of furniture.

Bibliography:
J. Nicolay, L'art et la manière des maîtres ébénistes français au XVIIIe Siècle, 1956, p. 37, fig. B

Similar models :
- Christie's London, October 26, 2011, London Living - Wilton Crescent, Belgravia & Avenue Road, Regents Park, lot no. 1321
- Sotheby's New York, November 3, 2005, Property from the Collections of Lily & Edmond J. Safra, Lot no. 289
- Christie's New York, April 21, 1979, lot n° 118