CIRCA 1875

Details

A LARGE FRENCH ORMOLU-MOUNTED MAHOGANY CENTER TABLE
CIRCA 1875
With inset rectangular sarrancolin marble top above a stiff-leaf border and conforming frieze decorated with paterae -inset guilloche, raised on square tapering legs headed with oak leaf swags
34 ½ in. (87.5 cm.) high, 68 in. (172.5 cm.) wide, 38 in. (96.5 cm.) deep

Provenance

Anonymous sale; Sotheby’s, New York, 27 April 2006, lot 241.
Anonymous sale; Sotheby’s, New York, 18 October 2016, lot 153.

Literature

P. Hughes, The Wallace Collection: Catalogue of Furniture, Vol. II, London, 1996, pp. 1142-5 (F320).

Special Notice

Please note this lot will be moved to Christie’s Fine Art Storage Services (CFASS in Red Hook, Brooklyn) at 5pm on the last day of the sale. Lots may not be collected during the day of their move to Christie’s Fine Art Storage Services. Please consult the Lot Collection Notice for collection information. This sheet is available from the Bidder Registration staff, Purchaser Payments or the Packing Desk and will be sent with your invoice.

Lot Essay

This palatial center table is closely related to an example acquired by the 4th Marquess of Hertford in 1853 after the sale of the collection of the 2nd Marquess of Abercorn at Bentley Priory, now part of the Wallace Collection, London (F320). Though remarkably similar, the Wallace desk is larger than the present table and its frieze adorned with further oak-leaf swags to complement the those on the legs. Recorded in the Large Drawing Room at Hertford House in 1870 as a ‘Costly Centre Writing Table, Louis XVI finely mounted in chased ormolu with drawers, top covered with velvet', the Wallace table was loaned to the pioneering exhibition at Bethnal Green, London from 1872 to 1875, where it was almost certainly admired and meticulously studied for reproduction by burgeoning ébénistes of the Belle Epoque, such as Dasson, Sormani, Beurdeley and their contemporaries.

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