Lot Essay
This table, which is veneered in exotically-figured black Calamander within ribboned-tablets of golden satinwood, is supported on a 'Grecian ebonised' pillar with an 'altar' plinth, embellished with Egyptian-stars, and a Grecian-scrolled 'claw' terminating in festive lion-paws. Its ornament reflects the early 19th Century antique style promoted by publications such as Thomas Hope's Household Furniture and Interior Decoration, London, 1807, and relates for instance, to the drawing-room furniture supplied in 1810 for Papworth Hall, Cambridgeshire by George Oakley (d.1814) of Piccadilly. The popularity of Indian Calamander, known as 'Coromandel', was discussed at the time in The London Cabinet-Makers' Union Book of Prices, 1811. Three related sofa-tables are illustrated F. L. Hinckley, Directory of the Historic Cabinet Woods, New York, 1960 (pp.171-173).