AN ORMOLU AND ROUGE GRIOTTE MARBLE INK STAND

The taste for writing-table garnitures in the antique or Egyptian manner was encouraged around 1800 by leading marchands merciers and furniture dealers of Paris and London, and also by connoisseurs such as Thomas Hope (d.1842). Hope expressed particular admiration for the work of the French 'bronze and ormolie [sic] manufacturer', Alexis Decaix (d.1811) of Rupert Street, who was also patronised by George, Prince of Wales, later George IV.