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Gervais Maximilien Eugène Durand (1839-1920), born in Paris, was the author of the pair of identical side tables known as 'console - desserte' (S.855MŁ; S.857MŁ) in French. He started his own workshop in 1870 on Rue de la Cerisaie in Paris. The ébéniste designed and made furniture during the period of interior design and furniture-making focused on the imitation of historical styles. Considered the leading French ébéniste of the 2nd half of the 19th c., he signed his works with the inscription "G. DURAND". He gained renown at the 1889 Universal Exhibition, where he received a silver medal. Facing the growing demand for furniture modelled on historical styles, Gervais Durand made almost exclusively copies of French master craftsmen of the 17th and 18th centuries or close interpretations of them. In 1902, Durand's son Frédéric Louis entered into a partnership with him; after the death of his father in 1920, he took over the workshop and ran it until 1933, continuing to make copies of the works of the old master ébénistes. The presented table is an imitation of Classicist furniture in the style of Georges Jacob, one of the most outstanding pioneers of the Louis XVI style in the French furniture-making of the 18th century. The table is part of the Potockis' collection, most likely purchased in the 1890s, when the interiors of the Łańcut estate, modernised by Elżbieta and Roman Potocki, were being furnished. Edited by Teresa Bagińska-Żurawska https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9243-3967