Lot Essay
The elegant bedroom apartment 'Pembroke' dressing-table, with herm-tapered legs , is designed in the George III 'French antique' fashion of the 1770s. The Roman-mosaiced top is inlaid with a pearled ribbon-guilloche wreathing a central marble-figured yew medallion. This is displayed in a hollow-cornered and diamond-parquetried 'tablet' of silken-figured harewood and is wreathed in Etruscan-vase manner with black pearls in a golden ribbon band. Similar pearl-festooned medallions embellish the hinged candle-falls and fitted dressing-drawer, which is concealed in one end and fitted with a silvery ring handle and oval 'patera' plate.
Its yew veneer, as well as its Etruscan pearl-strings and black-japanned border were ornaments particularly favoured in the 1770s by the Soho cabinet-makers Messrs Mayhew and Ince (L.Wood, Catalogue of Commodes: The Lady Lever Art Gallery, London, 1994, no. 27).
A pair of Pembroke tables of identical pattern was sold by Neil and Sharon Phillips, Christie's, New York, 25 April 2008, lot 68 ($51,400 with premium).
Its yew veneer, as well as its Etruscan pearl-strings and black-japanned border were ornaments particularly favoured in the 1770s by the Soho cabinet-makers Messrs Mayhew and Ince (L.Wood, Catalogue of Commodes: The Lady Lever Art Gallery, London, 1994, no. 27).
A pair of Pembroke tables of identical pattern was sold by Neil and Sharon Phillips, Christie's, New York, 25 April 2008, lot 68 ($51,400 with premium).