ATTRIBUTED TO BLAKE & CO., MID-19TH CENTURY

This Louis XV-style marquetry table is attributed to Blake & Co. of Mount Street, London, based on its close relationship to a table in the entrance hall at Goodwood House, Sussex, labelled 'Messrs Blake's' (M.P. Levy, 'E.H. Baldock and the Blake Family: Further Evidence', Furntiure History Society Newsletter, no. 158, May 2005, pp. 1-3). Levy suggests that there is a marked similarity between the Goodwood table and another table supplied by E.H. Baldock to the 5th Duke of Buccleuch in 1841, which is stamped 'EHB'. It is feasible given that the marquetry is of exceptional quality on these tables, and on the present table, that Baldock contracted out to highly skilled marquetry specialists such as Blake. Another marquetry table, labelled Blake & Co., formerly at Corsham Court, is in the Victoria & Albert Museum store (W.20-1995).
Several unlabelled tables of the form and ornamentation of the present example are known. Their number includes a table attributed to Blake, sold Sotheby's, 12 April 2006, lot 86, and another sold 11 March 1994, lot 58.
For information regarding the Blake firm see lot 56.