A CLASSICAL CARVED AND PARCEL GILT BRASS MOUNTED AND INLAID MAHOGANY MARBLE-TOP PIER TABLE

Details

A CLASSICAL CARVED AND PARCEL GILT BRASS MOUNTED AND INLAID MAHOGANY MARBLE-TOP PIER TABLE
BY CHARLES HONORÉ LANNUIER, NEW YORK, CIRCA 1815

The rectangular marble top with canted corners above a conforming apron centering elaborate ormolu mounts with a classical head within a roundele flanked by floral sprays, the canted corners with lyre ormolu mounts over a band of cut-work floral brass inlay supported by gilt caryatids with carved wings, the brass-mounted rear columns centering a rectangular plate above a concave medial shelf, on carved front paw feet with acanthus-carved knees and rear block plinths--35in. high, 47¾in. wide, 19 9/16in. deep

Provenance

Armand de Balbi (1778-1839) and thence by descent to the present owner
According to family history, Armand de Balbi was born in Paris in 1778 and moved to New York at the age of 24. He became an American citizen and died in New York in 1839. Though there is no record of Armand de Balbi in the New York City directories of the period, a John Balby first appears in the directories in 1817-18 as living at 45 Leonard Street. By 1819, the spelling of his name is revised to Balbi. From 1819 through 1839-40, John Balbi is variously listed as living at 10 Franklin Street, 16 Provost Street and 142 Franklin Street. He had died before the 1840-41 directory was published, by which time his widow had moved to 167 Duane Street. The directory covering the years 1841-42 gives her name as Divine.

It may well be that Armand de Balbi and John Balbi were one and the same person. It was common for immigrants to anglecize and simplify their names; indeed Charles-Honoré Lannuier called himself Honoré on his labels and was listed in ---------- as Henry. Furthermore, ARmand de Balbi and John Balbi died in the same year, and share an extremely unusual surname. There are no other Balbis listed in the city directories (see Longworth's New York Directory for the period 1817-42).

Lot Essay

Charles-Honoré Lannuier (1779-1819) emigrated to New York from Paris in 1803 and set up shop at 60 Broad Street. In a newspaper advertisement that year, in both French and English, Lannuier
announced that he "takes the liberty of informing the public that he makes all kinds of furniture, beds, chairs &c. in the newest and latest French fashion." This table is one of eleven known documented Lannuier pier tables; the mate to this table sold at Sotheby's, October 22, 1988, lot 421. Related pier tables are in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Albany Institute, The Brooklyn Museum and the White House.