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Lot Essay
With its unusually deeply cut gesso decoration centred by a sunflower - alluding to Apollo's role in antiquity as leader of the Muses of artistic inspiration on Mount Parnassus - this richly gilt table is designed in the Franco/Roman manner popularised by William III's French 'architect', Daniel Marot (d. 1752). Pieces similarly embellished were carried out by the Pelletier family of carvers and gilders, who supplied pier tables, mirrors, candlestands and frames to William III and Queen Anne (T. Murdoch, 'Jean, Rene and Thomas Pelletier, a Huguenot family of carvers and gilders in England 1682-1726', The Burlington Magazine, parts I and II, November 1997 and June 1998) as did their successor as Royal cabinet-maker James Moore.
Games tables in gilt-gesso are comparatively rare - and those with a concertina-action perhaps even more so, owing to the inherent vulnerability of gilt-gesso decoration on frequently opening elements (hence the restorations to the gesso decoration of the concertina elements of this table). Two other examples of concertina-action tables are known: one, displaying the same central flowerhead within a circular medallion to the frieze - was formerly in the collection of Winston Guest, sold at Sotheby's New York, 13 December 1980, lot 68; the other was sold anonymously at Christie's New York, 7 April 2006, lot 342 ($72,000).
Games tables in gilt-gesso are comparatively rare - and those with a concertina-action perhaps even more so, owing to the inherent vulnerability of gilt-gesso decoration on frequently opening elements (hence the restorations to the gesso decoration of the concertina elements of this table). Two other examples of concertina-action tables are known: one, displaying the same central flowerhead within a circular medallion to the frieze - was formerly in the collection of Winston Guest, sold at Sotheby's New York, 13 December 1980, lot 68; the other was sold anonymously at Christie's New York, 7 April 2006, lot 342 ($72,000).