IN THE MANNER OF PIERRE LANGLOIS, CIRCA 1765

The French fashion for this style of Lady's table was introduced to London by the Tottenham Court Road ébéniste Pierre Langlois (d.1767) and was illustrated amongst the 'inlaid work' or 'Meubles, inscrutez de fleurs en bois et marqueteries...' advertised in his trade sheet (P. Thornton & W. Rieder, 'Pierre Langlois: Ebéniste. Part 1', The Connoisseur, December 1971, p. 284). Langlois invoiced one such hinged-top and stretcher-trayed table known as a table en chiffonnier or vide poche in 1759. When supplied at a cost of 9 guineas to the 4th Duke of Bedford, it was described as a 'table de vide poche incruste de fleur de bois violette des indes enjolivee de ornement de bronze doree ...' (Thornton & Rieder, ibid., p. 283 and illustrated in G. Worsley, 'Woburn Abbey', Country Life, 22 April 1993, p. 55, fig. 9). This table's elegantly serpentined form corresponds to that of 'A Table inlaid Woods by L'Anglois. £8' purchased by Elizabeth Duchess of Northumberland in the early 1760s (P. Thornton & W. Rieder, 'Pierre Langlois: Ebéniste. Part 3', The Connoisseur, April 1972, p. 258, fig. 4). Its surface is strewn with trompe l'oeil sprigs of Venus's sacred roses, accompanying a poetic tablet. This comprises a sacred urn enriched with flowered and laurel-festooned Roman foliage in the antique or arabesque manner adopted around 1770 and later popularised by Thomas Chippendale Junior's Sketches of Ornament, 1779.

This table bears similarities to a work-table attributed to Langlois, sold in these Rooms, 16 April 1998, lot 133 ($27,600). A further related work table attributed to Langlois, was sold from the Saul Steinberg Collection, Sotheby's New York, 26 May 2000, lot 151 ($41,000). Anotherar from Broadlands, Hampshire is illustrated in H. A.Tipping, English Homes, Period VI vol.I, Late Georgian, 1760-1820, London, 1926, p.251, fig.392