Console and pair of Louis XIV style consoles, XIXe

The history of circles:
            At the beginning of the century, Paris had five large circles, essentially worldly and aristocratic. Four were closely involved in the life of the boulevard: the Union, boulevard des Capucines, the Jockey Club, boulevard des Capucines, the Union Artistique, known as "l'Epatant", rue Boissy d'Anglas and the Cercle de la Rue Royale. The fifth was the Cercle Agricole, known as "des Patates", the future Nouveau Cercle which was located on boulevard Saint-Germain when the century began, and is still there. All have their history, all have had varying fortunes and three out of five survive today, the Cercle de la Rue Royale having merged with the Nouveau Cercle in 1915 and the Union Artistique with the same Cercle in 1945.
There are many Circles on the boulevards and in the adjacent streets, gaming circles, and small gambling dens monitored by the police as there have always been in the Opera and Palais Royal districts.
            The Cercle Agricole: this one is not a boulevardier but will become a bit so by absorbing, in 1916, the Cercle de la Rue Royale and, in 1946, the Cercle de l'Union Artistique, known as "l'Epatant", which is essentially Parisian.
The Cercle Agricole, created by squires and landowners in 1835, occupied an apartment on the rue de Beaune from where it moved to a beautiful building, 288 boulevard Saint-Germain. The architect was Henry Blondel who moved to the office of Henri Labrouste (architect of the Bibliothèque Nationale, rue Richelieu). Henry Blondel is known for having designed the beautiful Jardinière, the Bourse de Commerce and the Hôtel Continental. Its first merger would change its title and it would become the Nouveau Cercle de la Rue Royale and its merger with the Union Artistique would make it the Nouveau Cercle, but the old-timers would continue to call it the Cercle des Patates.
Since 1835, the Duke of Doudeauville, the Count of Chastellux, the Baron de la Tour de Pin, the Count of Mortemart, the Duke of Doudeauville, the Marquis de Mortemart, Count F. de Brissac, the Duke de Mortemart, the Count of Talhouet Roy, the Marquis C. de Beaumont, the Duke of Maillé.
            The New Circle has a very rich library thanks to the contributions of the Cercle de la Rue Royale and especially of the Union Artistique. It has a special tribune in Auteuil.