Lot Essay
The column-supported Davenport, with ink-tray in the bureau's side, corresponds to a pattern in Thomas King's, Cabinet-Maker's Sketch Book, 1835, and demonstrating the 'Modern style' blended with 'Parisian taste' (E.T. Joy, Pictorial Dictionary of British 19th Century Furniture Design, Woodbridge, 1977, p.349). Its columnar-supports and Grecian inlay relates to furniture exhibited in 1827 at the Paris exhibition by Jean Jacques Werner (d.1849).
Interestingly, the porcelain panels to the reverse are made by Davenport, originally an earthenware manufacturer, started in 1793 by John Davenport of Longport, Staffordshire. The porcelain factory was added in 1820 and imitated Derby Porcelain in its decoration.
The fashion for porcelain-mounted furniture increased in the 1840s when Edward Holmes Baldock was supplying furniture with richly ornamented Sèvres, Dresden and Oriental porcelain plaques through his premises in Hanway Street. Among other commissions, was the satinwood lean-to secrétaire inlaid with flowers and fitted with two Sèvres placques and branded 'EHB', which he supplied to the Duke of Buccleuch in 1841.
Interestingly, the porcelain panels to the reverse are made by Davenport, originally an earthenware manufacturer, started in 1793 by John Davenport of Longport, Staffordshire. The porcelain factory was added in 1820 and imitated Derby Porcelain in its decoration.
The fashion for porcelain-mounted furniture increased in the 1840s when Edward Holmes Baldock was supplying furniture with richly ornamented Sèvres, Dresden and Oriental porcelain plaques through his premises in Hanway Street. Among other commissions, was the satinwood lean-to secrétaire inlaid with flowers and fitted with two Sèvres placques and branded 'EHB', which he supplied to the Duke of Buccleuch in 1841.