Lot Essay
This table, designed and brass-banded in the Louis XVI manner, has its eliptic-medallion top veneered in mahogany and richly inlaid with a vignette, celebrating Peace and Plenty, and framed by a golden ribbon. Its filigreed inlay, of a flower-basket displayed in triumph amongst drapery-festooned and laurel-enriched Roman acanthus, relates to the arabesque style promoted in the 1780s by the architect Charles Cameron (d. 1812).
A closely related oval table with similar delicately scrolling inlay to the top was sold anonymously in these Rooms, 9 December 1993, lot 120, and a further related table, almost certainly supplied to Empress Catherine II (d. 1796) and by descent at the Peterhof Palace until the 1920s or 1930s, at Horsenden Manor, Princes Risborough, Buckinhamshire, sold Christie's house sale, 22 September 1997, lot 135.
A closely related oval table with similar delicately scrolling inlay to the top was sold anonymously in these Rooms, 9 December 1993, lot 120, and a further related table, almost certainly supplied to Empress Catherine II (d. 1796) and by descent at the Peterhof Palace until the 1920s or 1930s, at Horsenden Manor, Princes Risborough, Buckinhamshire, sold Christie's house sale, 22 September 1997, lot 135.