Lot Essay
The brand of EHB is that of Edward Holmes Baldock (1777-1845), the celebrated English dealer in porcelain and furniture. Among his principal clients to whom he supplied French furniture and Sèvres porcelain were George IV, the Duke of Northumberland, the Duke of Buccleuch and William Beckford. He was appointed Purveyor of China, Earthenware and Glass to William IV from 1832-37 and Purveyor of China to Queen Victoria from 1838-1845.
Baldock fulfilled a role similar to that of the 18th Century marchand-mercier, both designing and possibly making furniture to client's orders. He is known to have carried out restorations on numerous pieces of furniture, mainly of the Louis XV and Louis XVI eras, and often to have place this brand on them. A Louis XV bureau de dame, also stamped EHB, with very similar mounts and identical angle mounts was sold in these Rooms, 24 November 1988, lot 66. It is very likely that Baldock, remounted both these pieces in the second quarter of the 19th Century.
A very similar bureau du dame by Mathieu Criaerd from the collection of Jacques Dubois de Chefdebien, sold Ader, Paris, 13-14 February 1941, is illustrated M. Fouquier, Les belles aventures d'un marteau d'ivoire, Paris 1948, fig. 0.
Baldock fulfilled a role similar to that of the 18th Century marchand-mercier, both designing and possibly making furniture to client's orders. He is known to have carried out restorations on numerous pieces of furniture, mainly of the Louis XV and Louis XVI eras, and often to have place this brand on them. A Louis XV bureau de dame, also stamped EHB, with very similar mounts and identical angle mounts was sold in these Rooms, 24 November 1988, lot 66. It is very likely that Baldock, remounted both these pieces in the second quarter of the 19th Century.
A very similar bureau du dame by Mathieu Criaerd from the collection of Jacques Dubois de Chefdebien, sold Ader, Paris, 13-14 February 1941, is illustrated M. Fouquier, Les belles aventures d'un marteau d'ivoire, Paris 1948, fig. 0.