Lot Essay
The elegant bureau-plat, whose marquetry top displays satyr and serpent-headed cornucopiae issuing flowers, emblematic of peace and plenty, and musical and theatrical trophies, emblematic of the Arts, bears the brand of Edward Holmes Baldock (d. 1845), the celebrated dealer or marchand mercier of Hanway Street, who traded as an 'Ornamental China Dealer', 'Furniture Broker and Appraiser' and 'Foreign China Furniture Warehouse [man]' from 1805 (G. de Bellaigue, 'Edward Holmes Baldock', The Connoisseur, August 1975, pp. 290-99 and September 1975, pp. 18-25). The question of how much was made on his premises or subcontracted to 'cabinet inlayers and buhl manufacturers' such as Robert Blake, established off Tottenham Court Road in the 1820s, is discussed in C. Gilbert, Pictorial Dictionary of Marked London Furniture 1700-1840, Leeds, 1996, p. 16). He also seems to have employed the Paris-based George Gunn to act on his behalf in the supply of French furniture (S. Medlam, The Bettine, Lady Abindon Collection, London, 1996, p. 33).