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Lot Essay
This table belongs to a group of Antiquarian furniture executed in the 'Louis Quatorze' fashion using tortoiseshell inlaid with cut brass as practiced by André-Charles Boulle, which was popularized in the first decades of the 19th century by George Prince of Wales (later Prince Regent) having been introduced to the Prince’s famously opulent London home, Carlton House, by the acclaimed architect Henry Holland (d. 1806).
The French emigré craftsman Louis Constantin Le Gaigneur is recorded as having a 'buhl' manufactury at 19 Queen St., Edgeware Road, London between 1815 and 1816. He appears to have worked almost exclusively for the Prince Regent who advanced him £500 for a pair of library tables executed in the 'Louis Quatorze' French fashion for Carlton House in 1815, these remain in the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle. Other `buhl’ furniture was supplied by Thomas Parker of `Air Street, including a pair of `coffers with stands richly ornamented with chased brass mouldings’. At the same time a plethora of `antiquarian’ dealers clustered around Soho; among the best known is Edward Holmes Baldock of Hanway Street. Baldock first appeared in 1805 as a dealer in china and glass, by 1821 he had added furniture to his stock in trade and in 1826, as well as buying and selling, he was repairing, altering and remodelling existing furniture and designing new pieces. He specialised in furniture in the Boulle manner, in French 17th century style ebony cabinets and in Eastern style ebony and ivory seat furniture (G. Gilbert, Dictionary of English Furniture Makers 1660-1840, Leeds, 1986). In the mid 19th century firms like Town & Emanuel of New Bond Street continued the tradition, a boulle marquetry and ebony writing-table by Town & Emanuel on similar rectilinear supports is at Hinton Ampner House, Hants (C.Gilbert, Pictorial Dictionary of Marked London Furniture 1700 - 1840, Leeds, 1996, p.451, fig.906).
The French emigré craftsman Louis Constantin Le Gaigneur is recorded as having a 'buhl' manufactury at 19 Queen St., Edgeware Road, London between 1815 and 1816. He appears to have worked almost exclusively for the Prince Regent who advanced him £500 for a pair of library tables executed in the 'Louis Quatorze' French fashion for Carlton House in 1815, these remain in the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle. Other `buhl’ furniture was supplied by Thomas Parker of `Air Street, including a pair of `coffers with stands richly ornamented with chased brass mouldings’. At the same time a plethora of `antiquarian’ dealers clustered around Soho; among the best known is Edward Holmes Baldock of Hanway Street. Baldock first appeared in 1805 as a dealer in china and glass, by 1821 he had added furniture to his stock in trade and in 1826, as well as buying and selling, he was repairing, altering and remodelling existing furniture and designing new pieces. He specialised in furniture in the Boulle manner, in French 17th century style ebony cabinets and in Eastern style ebony and ivory seat furniture (G. Gilbert, Dictionary of English Furniture Makers 1660-1840, Leeds, 1986). In the mid 19th century firms like Town & Emanuel of New Bond Street continued the tradition, a boulle marquetry and ebony writing-table by Town & Emanuel on similar rectilinear supports is at Hinton Ampner House, Hants (C.Gilbert, Pictorial Dictionary of Marked London Furniture 1700 - 1840, Leeds, 1996, p.451, fig.906).