BASICALLY LATE 18TH CENTURY AND WITH INDISTINCT STAMP FOR CONRAD MAUTER, EMBELLISHED IN THE 19TH CENTURY WITH THE ADDITION OF ORMOLU AND PORCELAIN PLAQUES

Conrad Mauter, maître in 1777.

This bureau-dressing-table, garlanded with flowered porcelain tablets and medallions and fitted with china-rail gallery, reflects the antique taste promoted in the 1770s at the court of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette by marchands-merciers such as Dominique Daguerre, who also established premises in London. The taste for porcelain or lacquer enriched furniture continued to flourish in England, with encouragement from leading dealers and China men, such as E.H.Baldock (d.1845). This table bears the ébénistes brand of Conrad Mauter, who was patronised by the comte d'Artois and supplied furnishings to the chateau's of Bagatelle, Saint Germain-en-laye and Saint-Cloud. It is possible that this table was once mounted with Sèvres plaques, which were replaced in the l9th century. A related table bearing the brand of J.H. Riesener was acquired by the South Kensington Museum (now the Victoria and Albert Museum) in 1882 (see The Catalogue of the Jones Collection, Part I, by O. Brackett, London, 1922, plate 40.