STAMPED BY HERTER BROTHERS (W. 1864-1906), NEW YORK, CIRCA 1878

This library table is an extraordinary example of the height of the Aesthetic movement and a significant survival made by the Herter Brothers firm which was known for its finely-executed furniture in various eclectic and historical styles. Half-brothers Gustav and Christian Herter produced highly-prized unique works and interiors for America’s newly established elite class of industrialists and financiers, such as the present lot commissioned by Mark Hopkins (1813-1878), the treasurer of the Southern Pacific Railroad at the time, and his wife Mary Hopkins (1818-1981). The table was designed for the library in their newly constructed thirty-four room Gothic mansion known as the Nob Hill residence in San Francisco. It served as a functional and decorative extension of the library itself, with its highly carved and ornamental walnut surface. Mark Hopkins died nine months before the completion of Nob Hill’s construction and its interiors. Following his death, Mary officially adopted her long-time foster child Timothy Hopkins who married her niece Mary Crittenden in 1882. Family relations became strained when Mary married Edward Searles, a former decorator at Herter Brothers and fifteen years her junior. Mary apparently wrote Timothy out of her will, leaving her estate to Edward. Before her death, Mary and Timothy reconciled and he eventually acquired the library table which was brought to his new residence on Washington Street in San Francisco. The table was later sold with the Washington residence.