Lot Essay
The two collection labels refer to Olga Nikolaievna's house in Stuttgart, Villa Berg (O.N. VILLA) and Herzogin Vera von Württemberg, Grossfürstin von Russland (H.V.v.W. G.v.R.).
The Property of a European Princely Family
A Russian (St. Petersburg) porcelain and gilt composition-mounted walnut work table
IN THE LOUIS XV STYLE, MID-19TH CENTURY
Details
A Russian (St. Petersburg) porcelain and gilt composition-mounted walnut work table
In the Louis XV Style, Mid-19th Century
The concave-sided top with a central hinged door decorated with a porcelain plaque showing a young girl dreaming of love in a garden by Venus's sacred rose tree, flanked by two rectangular tablets with fruit and flowers sprays, above a frieze fitted with two hidden drawers to the front angles and with a green velvet-lined brushing slide to either side, and inset with fourteen floral dark blue-ground porcelain plaques within foliate composition borders, on mask-headed serpentine legs joined by an 'X'-shaped stretcher, on scrolled feet, with a paper label printed H.V.v.W G.v.R. privat Eigentum No. and in ink numbered 209 and with remains of another label printed O.N. VILLA, the reverse of the central porcelain panel to the lid with mark for the Imperial porcelain factory period of Nicholas I (1825-55) below a crown]
26½ in. (67.3 cm.) wide; 30¼ in. (76.8 cm.) high; 18 5/8 in. (47.3 cm.) deep
In the Louis XV Style, Mid-19th Century
The concave-sided top with a central hinged door decorated with a porcelain plaque showing a young girl dreaming of love in a garden by Venus's sacred rose tree, flanked by two rectangular tablets with fruit and flowers sprays, above a frieze fitted with two hidden drawers to the front angles and with a green velvet-lined brushing slide to either side, and inset with fourteen floral dark blue-ground porcelain plaques within foliate composition borders, on mask-headed serpentine legs joined by an 'X'-shaped stretcher, on scrolled feet, with a paper label printed H.V.v.W G.v.R. privat Eigentum No. and in ink numbered 209 and with remains of another label printed O.N. VILLA, the reverse of the central porcelain panel to the lid with mark for the Imperial porcelain factory period of Nicholas I (1825-55) below a crown]
26½ in. (67.3 cm.) wide; 30¼ in. (76.8 cm.) high; 18 5/8 in. (47.3 cm.) deep
Provenance
Olga Nikolaievna, Grand Duchess of Russia and Queen of Württemberg (d. 1892), second daughter of Tsar Nicholas I, Villa Berg, Stuttgart
Vera Konstantinovna, Grand Duchess of Russia, Grand-daughter of Tsar Nicholas I and Duchess of Württemberg (d. 1912), niece of the above Thence by descent
Vera Konstantinovna, Grand Duchess of Russia, Grand-daughter of Tsar Nicholas I and Duchess of Württemberg (d. 1912), niece of the above Thence by descent