Potence, Cocktail Table With Brass & Glass Tops

The potence is that console, that arm that bears in cantilever: Jacques Charles made of it the base of a whole family of tables. Fine legs of hammered bronze, curved and tapered to a point, splay to carry a glass top and, at times, a low shelf. The console with glass tops (ref. 6478), the one with glass and brass tops (ref. 6953), and the low table (ref. 6415) all vary the same base. The hammered bronze, gilt or patinated, keeps the trace of the hammer; the glass lightens the whole.