Lot Essay
This table, together with its companion, inlaid en première partie and acquired by George Byng, M.P. (d.1847), for Wrotham Park, Hertfordshire, was almost certainly supplied by the marchand-mercier Edward Holmes Baldock (d.1854). Reflecting the revival of interest in 'Buhl' furniture under Louis XVI and, subsequently, George, Prince of Wales, later King George IV, the tables both display early 18th German marquetry tops which were probably re-used from a pair of torchères. That ébénistes such as Etienne Levasseur (maître in 1767) were engaged in either repairing or remodelling Boulle furniture, as well as creating new furniture in an earlier style, often re-using old Boulle panels, is widely documented, but as early as 1766, Philippe-Claude Montigny (maître in 1766) was described in the Almanach Dauphin as 'un des plus renommées pour les meubles en écaille et argent ou ébéne et cuivre, dans le genre des ouvrages du célébre Boulle'.
This table, constructed on to a mahogany carcase, was most probably made in the early 19th Century in the 'antiquarian' taste. It is, therefore, interesting to note that the cabinet-maker George Bullock (d.1819) supplied a stand of related form to Sir Walter Scott for Abbotsford in 1816, which was designed to support a silver urn given to the latter by Lord Byron ('The Treasure Houses of Britain', Exhibition Catalogue, Washington, 1985, p.592, no.527).
The première partie companion table, identical save for its brass-fluted legs, was offered by Robert Byng Esq. in these Rooms, 10 June 1993, lot 104.
This table, constructed on to a mahogany carcase, was most probably made in the early 19th Century in the 'antiquarian' taste. It is, therefore, interesting to note that the cabinet-maker George Bullock (d.1819) supplied a stand of related form to Sir Walter Scott for Abbotsford in 1816, which was designed to support a silver urn given to the latter by Lord Byron ('The Treasure Houses of Britain', Exhibition Catalogue, Washington, 1985, p.592, no.527).
The première partie companion table, identical save for its brass-fluted legs, was offered by Robert Byng Esq. in these Rooms, 10 June 1993, lot 104.