A WILLIAM IV BRASS-INLAID ROSEWOOD 'BOULLE' MARQUETRY WRITING-TABLE

CIRCA 1830, ATTRIBUTED TO TOWN & EMANUEL

Details

A WILLIAM IV BRASS-INLAID ROSEWOOD 'BOULLE' MARQUETRY WRITING-TABLE
Circa 1830, attributed to Town & Emanuel
The rectangular canted top inlaid at center with Diana and putti and with cartouches enclosing seated musicians, exotic birds and beasts, foliate scrolls and strapwork, within a brass-bound edge, the central frieze drawer over an arched kneehole and flanked by two small drawers to each side, on cabriole legs with foliate and bifurcated sabots, the case similarly inlaid with elaborate strapwork enclosing masks, exotic beasts and animals, later mounted

Provenance

Christie's London, 29 November 1984, lot 75
Sotheby's New York, 7-8 June 1985, lot 320
Sotheby's New York, 7 April 1990, lot 213

Literature

G. Beard and J. Goodison, English Furniture 1500-1840, London, 1987, p.275, fig.3

Lot Essay

This desk exemplifies the aristocratic taste for French designs of the ancien regime and the revival of 'buhl' patterns based on prototypes by royal ebeniste Andre-Charles Boulle and the designs of Jean Berain. The desk is attributed to the London firm of Town & Emanuel, dealers, manufacturers and restorers working at 103 New Bond Street from 1830 until the sale of their stock in 1849. Their printed trade label advertised the firm as 'Manufactureres of Buhl Marqueterie, Riesner & Carved Furniture, Tripods, Screens &. of the Finest & Most Superb Designs of the Times of Louis 14th...' (reproduced in F.Collard, 'Town & Emanuel', Furniture History, 1996, p.82, fig.1). The inlaid design of the top relates closely to that on a writing-table at Hinton Ampner, Hants (see C.Gilbert, Pictorial Dictionary of Marked London Furniture 1700-1840, Leeds, 1996, p.451, figs.905-906). Another virtually identical writing-table was probably supplied to the 2nd Marquess of Exeter for Burghley House (illustrated in F.Collard, op.cit., p.85, fig.5). Other cabinetmakers inspired by Boulle prototypes include Thomas Parker of Air Street and Louis Le Gaigneur of Edgware Road, both of whom supplied furniture to George IV.

A French prototype of this basic form and decoration in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London is illustrated in C. Parker, Paris Furniture by the Master Ebenistes, Newport, England, 1956, fig.2.