.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
With its curvaceous silhouette and exquisite marquetry inlay, this table is a fine example of furniture produced by the preeminent London firm, Blake, inspired by the works of renowned Ancien Régime furniture maker, André-Charles Boulle. In its unusual six-legged design with inward turned central legs, the present centre table is most closely related to a preparatory drawing by Boulle in the collections of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris (inv. 723 B 1) and to a number of associated console tables created by the master. Boulle’s furniture – created for many of the late 17th and early 18th century’s most celebrated patrons including Louis XIV – enjoyed great renown throughout his lifetime and has been avidly collected ever since. This continued fascination with and fashion for Boulle gave rise to careful restorations and adaptations of his works from the mid-18th century, high quality exact reproductions of celebrated models in the 19th century, and original works inspired by creations of the cabinetmaker to the Sun King including the present centre table.
Though relatively little is known about the Blake family of furniture makers, they are documented as makers of fine `buhl’ furniture from 1826 when Robert Blake is recorded as a `cabinet inlayer and buhl manufacturer’ at 8 Stephen Street in London (C. Gilbert, Pictorial Dictionary of Marked London Furniture 1700-1840, Leeds, 1996, p. 18). Over the subsequent decades, Robert’s sons, George, Charles, James and Henry were associated with the firm and its workshop moved to various locations in London as its activities diversified and transformed, with various modifications to its name along the way. In manifestation of the Blake family’s continued interest in the work of Boulle, the firm created a series of splendid commodes, the exact replicas of those created by Boulle for Louis XIV at the Grand Trianon of which a pair is in the Frick Collection (1916.5.02-3) and another pair sold Christie’s, New York, 25 October 2007, lot 369 ($577,000). As the intricate foliage and scrolls to the present table would suggest, the Blake firm was also celebrated for the exceptional marquetry inlay on the furniture it produced. Notable examples include a splendid case for an Erard piano commissioned by Thomas Lord Foley, baron of Kidder, minister for Witley Court and today in The Metropolitan Museum, New York (59.76) and a marquetry table at Goodwood House illustrated M. Levy, 'E.H, Baldock and the Blake Family', Furniture History Society Newsletter, May 2005, p.1. The present table – of which, another nearly identical version has recently been recorded on the art market – is therefore a fine and innovative manifestation of an English cabinetmaker’s reinterpretation of French furniture at its zenith.
This table would almost certainly have been commissioned/acquired from Blake directly by Sir Henry Hope Edwardes Bt., who was a keen collector of both period and superb contemporary evocations of 18th century furniture as can be seen throughout this catalogue. Hope Edwardes patronised many of the best London dealers and craftsmen including Annoot, Gillow and Durlacher as well as having strong links with the family of Edward Holmes Baldock. His collecting was at its peak in the 1860s, 70s & 80s and the the relationship between cabinet maker and patron is evidenced by the survival of correspondence and a printed bill head in the family archive. Please also see lots 20 & 72.
Though relatively little is known about the Blake family of furniture makers, they are documented as makers of fine `buhl’ furniture from 1826 when Robert Blake is recorded as a `cabinet inlayer and buhl manufacturer’ at 8 Stephen Street in London (C. Gilbert, Pictorial Dictionary of Marked London Furniture 1700-1840, Leeds, 1996, p. 18). Over the subsequent decades, Robert’s sons, George, Charles, James and Henry were associated with the firm and its workshop moved to various locations in London as its activities diversified and transformed, with various modifications to its name along the way. In manifestation of the Blake family’s continued interest in the work of Boulle, the firm created a series of splendid commodes, the exact replicas of those created by Boulle for Louis XIV at the Grand Trianon of which a pair is in the Frick Collection (1916.5.02-3) and another pair sold Christie’s, New York, 25 October 2007, lot 369 ($577,000). As the intricate foliage and scrolls to the present table would suggest, the Blake firm was also celebrated for the exceptional marquetry inlay on the furniture it produced. Notable examples include a splendid case for an Erard piano commissioned by Thomas Lord Foley, baron of Kidder, minister for Witley Court and today in The Metropolitan Museum, New York (59.76) and a marquetry table at Goodwood House illustrated M. Levy, 'E.H, Baldock and the Blake Family', Furniture History Society Newsletter, May 2005, p.1. The present table – of which, another nearly identical version has recently been recorded on the art market – is therefore a fine and innovative manifestation of an English cabinetmaker’s reinterpretation of French furniture at its zenith.
This table would almost certainly have been commissioned/acquired from Blake directly by Sir Henry Hope Edwardes Bt., who was a keen collector of both period and superb contemporary evocations of 18th century furniture as can be seen throughout this catalogue. Hope Edwardes patronised many of the best London dealers and craftsmen including Annoot, Gillow and Durlacher as well as having strong links with the family of Edward Holmes Baldock. His collecting was at its peak in the 1860s, 70s & 80s and the the relationship between cabinet maker and patron is evidenced by the survival of correspondence and a printed bill head in the family archive. Please also see lots 20 & 72.