BY MARTIN CARLIN, CIRCA 1775, THE JAPANESE LACQUER CIRCA 17TH CENTURY

Carlin is justly famous for the jewel-like quality of the furniture he produced, particularly his tables incorporating rare and luxurious materials such as Sèvres porcelain, hardstones and imported lacquer. This Transitional or early Louis XVI-style table is an exquisite example, constructed around Japanese lacquer panels undoubtedly provided by a marchand-mercier and intended for an exceptionally discerning client. Carlin’s close collaboration with the marchand-merciers is well-documented and resulted in some of the finest and most inventive works of furniture produced in the eighteenth century, objects which could not have been achieved outside of this system of production. Japanese lacquer is rare and celebrated among Carlin's oeuvre, with a magnificent suite delivered in the early 1780s to the Mesdames de France, Adélaïde and Victoire, at Bellevue, and now housed in the Louvre, serving as a famous example.
The Zollabfertigung Berlin customs stamp to this table provides the only clue to its provenance. This stamp often appears on works of art that were exported to Germany by the Soviet government between 1928 and 1931, for sales to finance the burgeoning Soviet state. Although it does not appear in the 12-13 May 1931 sale catalogue of works from the Count Stroganoff collection, an association with the Stroganoff family has nonetheless persisted.