.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
The table, wreathed by Roman foliage in filigreed Roman mosaic and supported on a herm-tapered pillar with trussed Roman-tripod 'claw', is designed in the Louis Quatorze 'Roman' fashion'. Its style was popularised around 1700 by William III's French 'architect' Daniel Marot (d. 1752) through goldsmiths' ornament such as featured in his Nouveaux Livre d'Orfevrerie. The 'Dolphin' badge of Louis, Grand Dauphin of France (d. 1711) appears on similar Boulle-filigreed tables with folding candle-tray tops, including one concealing a scene of figures enjoying a collation of tea or chocolate, such as Marot published in his Nouveaux Livre d'ornaments propres pour faite en Broderie et petit point (see G. Wilson and C. Hess, European Decorative Arts in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angles, 2001, no 54 and J. Roberts, George III and Queen Charlotte, London, 2004, no. 260). Golden acanthus-enwreathed cartouches with the coronet-ensigned cypher of Elizabeth Duchess of Somerset (d. 1722) appear on a similar walnut-marquetried table that has been attributed to the court cabinet-maker, Gerrit Jensen, a specialist in 'flower'd markatree' (G. Jackson-Stops, 'Furniture at Petworth', Apollo, May 1977, p. 359, fig . 6). Similar marquetry, on a light golden ground, features on a chest of drawers at Lyme Park ( A. Bowett, English Furniture from Charles II to Queen Anne 1660-1714, London, 2002, p. 199, pl. 7.7).