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Lot Essay
The circular drawing-room 'loo' table of black-figured rosewood is conceived in the early 19th century French antique fashion with an hexagon pillar rising from a richly-carved tripod 'altar' pedestal that is wreathed by Roman foliage and supported by lion paws. Its top, celebrating the poetry deity Apollo, is beautifully inlaid in the Louis Quatorze fashion with golden brass filigree and iridescent 'mother-of-pearl' shell. Palm-flowered foliage radiates from its central scalloped patera to wreath figurative medallions emblematical of the Zodiac. The taste for such richly-inlaid furnishings was promoted in the early 19th century by the ivory-inlaid imports of Companies trading to India, and received further encouragement with the establishment of the International Exhibitions in the middle of the century. Patterns for similarly-inlaid and encrusted tables featured in 1847 in Henry Whitaker's Treasurey of Designs, which were executed in a variety of styles including the Grecian, Italian, Renaissance, Louis Quatorze, Gothic, Tudor, Elizabethan and Francis I. A related table by R.W. Herring & Sons, featuring marquetry designed by John Flaxman depicting scenes taken from Elton's Hesiod was exhibited in the 1851 Great Exhibition (sold anonymously, Bonhams London, 12 June 2013, lot 173).
The use of brass and mother-of-pearl marquetry can also be related to the work of the Munich cabinet-maker Franz Xaver Fortner (1798-1877). Fortner worked in styles ranging from Neo-Gothicism to Historicism, and continued the eighteenth-century Bavarian specialty of brass-inlaid furniture. By the mid-19th century, the Boulle revival fashion reached the court of Frederick William IV, and in 1859, he commissioned furniture for the Boulle Zimmer of the newly-built Orangerie located in the grounds of Schloss Sanssouci. A related octagonal table veneered with 'contre-partie' marquetry and a further example in 'premiere-partie' recall the marquetry of the present table (G. Himmelheber, Deutsche Mobelvorlagen 1800-1900 Eind Bildlexicon, Munich, 1988, p. 41, fig. 31 & p. 341, no. 1772; H. Kreisel, Die Kunst des Deutschen Mobels, Munich, 1973, figs. 671 & 672).
The use of brass and mother-of-pearl marquetry can also be related to the work of the Munich cabinet-maker Franz Xaver Fortner (1798-1877). Fortner worked in styles ranging from Neo-Gothicism to Historicism, and continued the eighteenth-century Bavarian specialty of brass-inlaid furniture. By the mid-19th century, the Boulle revival fashion reached the court of Frederick William IV, and in 1859, he commissioned furniture for the Boulle Zimmer of the newly-built Orangerie located in the grounds of Schloss Sanssouci. A related octagonal table veneered with 'contre-partie' marquetry and a further example in 'premiere-partie' recall the marquetry of the present table (G. Himmelheber, Deutsche Mobelvorlagen 1800-1900 Eind Bildlexicon, Munich, 1988, p. 41, fig. 31 & p. 341, no. 1772; H. Kreisel, Die Kunst des Deutschen Mobels, Munich, 1973, figs. 671 & 672).