THE BRECHE VIOLETTE TOP 18TH CENTURY, THE BASE LATE 19TH CENTURY IN THE MANNER OF MATTHIAS LOCK

A table of identical design (possibly lot 187 offered here) was exhibited at the Franco-British Exhibition, London, in 1908. The Decorative Arts section of this important exhibition was representative of the different periods of the finest French and English furniture, from Tudor period to the end of the Hanovarian Monarchy. An identical table (again possibly lot 187 offered here) was sold Christie's London, 5 May 1988, lot 128, offered with a different marble top..

The design for the frieze of this grand side table with its ring-tied drapery of the Nemean lion-pelt worn by the hero Hercules, derives from a drawing circa 1740, by the celebrated carver Matthias Lock (d. 1765). The drawing was acquired in 1862 by the Victoria & Albert Museum, is illustrated in P. Ward-Jackson English Furniture Designs of the Eighteenth Century, London, 1958, fig. 48.