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Lot Essay
This form of extending table with infolding flaps was patented by A. G. Eckard in 1771. According to Eckard, this "Portable Table' was '...so contrived as to answer all the Purposes of the Common Tables, and at the same time to lay in the compass of a small Box...the facility of changing the flaps at pleasure, the one of which being of any beautifull wood, and the other covered with green cloth, it will then occasionally serve either as a tea table or as a card or writing table'. An elaborately decorated satinwood table of this form, possibly commissioned by Sir Cecil Bisshopp, 8th Bt. and l2th Lord Zouche (d. l828) for Parham Park, Sussex, is illustrated in P. Macquoid, The Age of Satinwood, London, l908, color pl. VI. An example by Mayhew and Ince with a tripod base and parquetry-inlaid interior was supplied to Croome Court, Worcestershire, and now in an English private collection. A table of this form with a more heavily-carved base is illustrated in G. Wills, English Furniture 1760-1900, London, 1971, fig. 90 and pl. 15. It was subsequently sold by R.B.W. Clarke, Esq., from Bridwell, Devon, at Bearne's Torquay, 14 October 1992, lot 26.
The table bears the stamp of C. Toussaint to the underside of each side. While a maker of this name has not come to light, he may have been related to a family of Parisian cabinet-makers of this name. Interestingly, there was a Carlo Toussaint and his son Francesco, who worked for the Lorraine court in the 1790s (E. Colle, I Mobili di Palazzo Pitti, Florence, 1992).
The table once formed part of the 'well-known' English furniture collection of Stephen Winkworth, who was also renowned for his Chinese ceramics. The collection was sold by Sotheby's on 25-29 April 1933 and and the table appears as lot 772. The sale was discussed by J. de Serre in a Country Life article of 15 April 1933, pp.386-387.
The table bears the stamp of C. Toussaint to the underside of each side. While a maker of this name has not come to light, he may have been related to a family of Parisian cabinet-makers of this name. Interestingly, there was a Carlo Toussaint and his son Francesco, who worked for the Lorraine court in the 1790s (E. Colle, I Mobili di Palazzo Pitti, Florence, 1992).
The table once formed part of the 'well-known' English furniture collection of Stephen Winkworth, who was also renowned for his Chinese ceramics. The collection was sold by Sotheby's on 25-29 April 1933 and and the table appears as lot 772. The sale was discussed by J. de Serre in a Country Life article of 15 April 1933, pp.386-387.