Table

Unknown Artist

Unlike a similar small porcelain-mounted table in the Wallace Collection (F329), this table has never been considered anything other than 19th century. It was described at the sale in 1855 of the contents of the 3rd Marquess of Hertford’s house, St Dunstan’s Villa, as being ‘An oblong plateau, of the finest old Sèvres, gros bleu and green, with centre of birds, mounted as a table’. The table was probably made in England in the 1820s, when there was a strong interest amongst British collectors for Sèvres porcelain and for Sèvres-mounted furniture. There has been no attempt made to emulate a piece of French 18th-century furniture in either style or materials; this table is made of solid mahogany and oak. It is likely that the 3rd Marquess bought this table when new. The porcelain tray (museum number C489) is a ‘plateau Courteille’, shape D, intended originally for mounting as the lower shelf of a table (identifiable from its indented corners). The date letter on the back is for 1759 and the painter’s mark is for Louis-Denis Armand l’aîné (b. 1723, left Sèvres 1779). A matching tray with lobed edges, originally made for mounting as the top shelf of a table, forms the top of an altered French 18th-century table in the Victoria & Albert Museum, and it is probable that these two trays were once mounted as a pair before they were split in the 19th century and fitted into separate pieces of furniture.

c. 1825

Oak, mahogany, sèvres soft-paste porcelain, gilt-and blue painted glass and gilt-bronze

76.0 x 31.8cm

F310

Images and text © Wallace Collection, 2017