Lot 34
34
AN EMPIRE ORMOLU AND TOLE PEINTE-MOUNTED MAHOGANY BEDSIDE TABLE ('SOMNO')
Specified lots (sold and unsold) marked with a fil… Read more
AN EMPIRE ORMOLU AND TOLE PEINTE-MOUNTED MAHOGANY BEDSIDE TABLE ('SOMNO')

ATTRIBUTED TO JACOB FRERES, EARLY 19TH CENTURY

Details
AN EMPIRE ORMOLU AND TOLE PEINTE-MOUNTED MAHOGANY BEDSIDE TABLE ('SOMNO')
ATTRIBUTED TO JACOB FRERES, EARLY 19TH CENTURY
The cupboard door and sides centred by blue-painted medallions with classical urns, flanked by torches linked by foliate swags, on square bracket feet
33 ½ in. (85 cm.) high; 20 ¼ in. (51.5 cm.) square
Special notice
Specified lots (sold and unsold) marked with a filled square not collected from Christie’s by 5.00 pm on the day of the sale will, at our option, be removed to Cadogan Tate. Christie’s will inform you if the lot has been sent offsite. Our removal and storage of the lot is subject to the terms and conditions of storage which can be found at Christies.com/storage. Please call Christie’s Client Service 24 hours in advance to book a collection time at Cadogan Tate Ltd. All collections will be by pre-booked appointment only. Tel: +44 (0)20 7839 9060 Email: cscollectionsuk@christies.com. If the lot remains at Christie’s it will be available for collection on any working day 9.00 am to 5.00 pm. Lots are not available for collection at weekends.
Sale room notice
While the consistent quality and type of mahogany veneers appear to identify the present top as original, the inset marble top of the closely related table delivered by Jacob-Desmalter in 1804 to Fontainebleau suggests this table, too, could have originally been conceived with a marble top.

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Alexandra Cruden
Alexandra Cruden
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Lot Essay

This ‘Somno’, richly mounted with finely chased ormolu mounts and blued tôle medallions, is after a design by the celebrated architects and ornemanistes Charles Percier and Pierre-François Léonard Fontaine. This design was first illustrated in their Recueil de Décorations Intérieures, Paris, 1801-1812, pl. XXIII, with the caption: ‘Table de nuit exécutée à Paris pour Me. M. par les frères Jacob.’
An almost identical ‘Somno’ was delivered by Jacob-Desmalter and Cie for the Palais de Fontainebleau the 14th of November 1804. This piece was inventoried in 1804 in the Emperor’s bedroom, in 1807 in the boudoir turc, in 1810 in the bedroom of the Impératrice, and is still part of the Fontainebleau collection (inv. Num. GME 6879).

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