A FINE PAIR OF LOUIS PHILIPPE ORMOLU-MOUNTED BIRCHWOOD MARQUETRY CARD TABLES, each with a rectangular hinged folding top centred by a marquetry-inlaid panel depicting a scene from Aesop's Fable, The Stork and the Fox, one showing the bird and fox by a fountain, the other with the fox drinking from a bowl whilst the stork stands at his side, each within landscape views, signed H. Ahrens and dated 1858, within a crossbanded and ivory-inlaid border with acanthus scrolls and husk pendants with ribbon-tied berried laurel below and flanked by a ribbon-tied foliate pendant to each side, within a cross-banded and foliate-scrolled border, the playing surface with a burgundy velvet-lined interior, outlined with a variety of woods and shaped spandrels, the panelled frieze with telescopic action inlaid with ribbon-tied foliage within a green stained sycamore border within an ormolu frame work and within two additional sections (used to extend the side panels when being used for cards), each corner with a pair of scrolled acanthus volute brackets above square tapering legs, each with four raised shaped tapering panels inlaid with bell flowers with beaded roundels to the top and acanthus rosettes to the middle, on square tapering blocked feet with beaded border, with a well for the two additional frieze sections, one with a paper label printed H. N. P. Paris within a square border and 4 in ink, and with a cut-out inscription from the Pierpoint Morgan sale and inscribed in ink Pierpoint Morgan Collection Christie's March 29th 1944 Catal. No. 384, mid-19th Century38¼in. (87cm.) wide; 29¾in. (75.5cm.) high; 17½in. (44.5cm.) deep (2)

THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN

A FINE PAIR OF LOUIS PHILIPPE ORMOLU-MOUNTED BIRCHWOOD MARQUETRY CARD TABLES, each with a rectangular hinged folding top centred by a marquetry-inlaid panel depicting a scene from Aesop's Fable, The Stork and the Fox, one showing the bird and fox by a fountain, the other with the fox drinking from a bowl whilst the stork stands at his side, each within landscape views, signed H. Ahrens and dated 1858, within a crossbanded and ivory-inlaid border with acanthus scrolls and husk pendants with ribbon-tied berried laurel below and flanked by a ribbon-tied foliate pendant to each side, within a cross-banded and foliate-scrolled border, the playing surface with a burgundy velvet-lined interior, outlined with a variety of woods and shaped spandrels, the panelled frieze with telescopic action inlaid with ribbon-tied foliage within a green stained sycamore border within an ormolu frame work and within two additional sections (used to extend the side panels when being used for cards), each corner with a pair of scrolled acanthus volute brackets above square tapering legs, each with four raised shaped tapering panels inlaid with bell flowers with beaded roundels to the top and acanthus rosettes to the middle, on square tapering blocked feet with beaded border, with a well for the two additional frieze sections, one with a paper label printed H. N. P. Paris within a square border and 4 in ink, and with a cut-out inscription from the Pierpoint Morgan sale and inscribed in ink Pierpoint Morgan Collection Christie's March 29th 1944 Catal. No. 384, mid-19th Century 38¼in. (87cm.) wide; 29¾in. (75.5cm.) high; 17½in. (44.5cm.) deep (2)

Details

A FINE PAIR OF LOUIS PHILIPPE ORMOLU-MOUNTED BIRCHWOOD MARQUETRY CARD TABLES, each with a rectangular hinged folding top centred by a marquetry-inlaid panel depicting a scene from Aesop's Fable, The Stork and the Fox, one showing the bird and fox by a fountain, the other with the fox drinking from a bowl whilst the stork stands at his side, each within landscape views, signed H. Ahrens and dated 1858, within a crossbanded and ivory-inlaid border with acanthus scrolls and husk pendants with ribbon-tied berried laurel below and flanked by a ribbon-tied foliate pendant to each side, within a cross-banded and foliate-scrolled border, the playing surface with a burgundy velvet-lined interior, outlined with a variety of woods and shaped spandrels, the panelled frieze with telescopic action inlaid with ribbon-tied foliage within a green stained sycamore border within an ormolu frame work and within two additional sections (used to extend the side panels when being used for cards), each corner with a pair of scrolled acanthus volute brackets above square tapering legs, each with four raised shaped tapering panels inlaid with bell flowers with beaded roundels to the top and acanthus rosettes to the middle, on square tapering blocked feet with beaded border, with a well for the two additional frieze sections, one with a paper label printed H. N. P. Paris within a square border and 4 in ink, and with a cut-out inscription from the Pierpoint Morgan sale and inscribed in ink Pierpoint Morgan Collection Christie's March 29th 1944 Catal. No. 384, mid-19th Century

38¼in. (87cm.) wide; 29¾in. (75.5cm.) high; 17½in. (44.5cm.) deep (2)

Provenance

The J. Pierpoint Morgan Collection, Wall Hall, Bedfordshire. Sold in these rooms 29 March 1944, lot 384 (85 gns. to Moller).
Mrs. James Hasson, sold in these rooms, 26 March 1981, lot 83.

Further details

END OF MORNING SESSION

Lot Essay

The tables with their hermed pilaster feet and poetic-trophies of flower-festooned and laurel-enriched medallions, are designed in the Louis XVI 'antique' manner. The picturesque scenes set in a landscaped park are inspired by Aesop's Fable concerning the Storks revenge on the Fox's inhospitality. One shows the Fox dining from a plate, and its companion the Stork dining from a narrow-necked vase. The tables formed part of the collection of J. Pierpont Morgan (d.1944) at Wall Hall, Bedfordshire.

They resemble closely a card-table by David Roentgen, circa 1782-1785, formely in the Stroganoff Collection, Leningrad (J. M. Greber, Abraham und David Roentgen, 1980. vol II, fig. 637)

The specalist inlayer or marqueteur Henry Ahrens (d. 1883) had moved his workshops to 25 Val-Sainte-Catherine in 1856.

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