A Magnificent Marquetry Inlaid Grand Bureau Plat or Library Table

Description

A Magnificent Early Victorian Gilt-Bronze Mounted Marquetry Inlaid Grand Bureau Plat or Library Table.

Attributed to Town & Emanuel for Edward Holmes Baldock.

The marquetry top comprising pen-engraved fruitwood, walnut, sycamore, olive and yew-wood. Within an undulating palmwood and ebony surround. The gilt-bronze surround cast with shells and scrolls. The frieze decorated with marquetry, the front and back with a recessed central drawer flanked on each side by a drawer with scrolled handles held by rococo figural busts. The drawers with birchwood linings. The bombé sides with marquetry. The whole raised on cabriole legs headed by gilt-bronze cartouches with foliate entwined chutes terminating in scrolled sabots.

Inscribed in ink to the carcass ‘Moreaux 72’.
The gilt-bronze variously stamped ‘O’.

England. Circa, 1830/1840.
The earlier marquetry German, 16th Century.

THE MARQUETRY
The exceptional and highly complex marquetry inlay and intarsia work is ascribable to the Augsburg region of Germany.

The marquetry probably originally formed the decorative panels of a 16th century table cabinet. It might be attributed to Lienhart Stromair or Bartholomew Weisshaupt, leading makers from Augsburg of marquetry furniture in the mid-16th century. Compare the fantastic marquetry panels of the “Wrangelschrank” cabinet, dated 1566, in the LWL Museum of Art and Culture, Münster (K-605 LM).

The front of the Wrangelschrank cabinet, dated 1566, attributed to Lienhart Stromair (LWL Museum of Art and Culture, Münster (K-605 LM).

Augsburg marquetry is distinguished by an abundance of decoration. It combines figures drawn from the Nuremberg printmakers and geometric patterns, taking from the designs of Lorenz Stöer (active second half of the 16th century). Leaf, vine and strapwork also feature prominently. The present marquetry panel is a sweeping pictorial vista. Reflecting the original panels of a cabinet, it is joined in four sections. Perhaps from door panels, front and back. The joins between the panels have been deliberately concealed in part by small replacements in the marquetry. The outer edges of the panels have been cut to sympathetically accommodate, and mirror, the curved shape of the surrounding bands of palmwood and ebony. The marquetry to the frieze drawers and sides, corresponds in part to the top panel. The offcut sections have been salvaged and spliced together to veneer the drawer fronts and sides. Additionally, other marquetry panels, repurposed for the frieze, were probably taken from other parts of the sacrificed cabinet. The timbers are varied and coloured in green or tinted by burning.

The marquetry depicts fantastical townscapes, knights, soldiers, hunting and architectural scenes. Their origin is drawn from printed engravings by the likes of Maarten van Heemskerk (1498-1574) and Jost Amman (1539-1591). Specifically, the figure kneeling before a stag resembles an engraving of Saint Eustace by Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528). While hunting, a pagan Roman general called Placidus saw a crucifix miraculously appear between a stag’s antlers. The stag spoke in Christ’s voice, and Placidus fell from his horse and became a Christian baptized with the name Eustace. Prophesying that Eustace must learn humility through misfortune, thereafter he loses his wealth and is separated from his family.

Saint Eustace, engraving by Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528).

The other figural groups can be interpreted as scenes from the legend of Saint Eustace. To the left of the panel, Eustace works as a guard protecting fields when he is approached by the envoy of Roman emperor Trajan, who calls him back to Rome to fight the barbarians. To the right, Eustace returns and amongst his company are two soldiers, who are unbeknownst to him, his two sons. They are recognised by his estranged wife who reunites the family. After Trajan’s death, Hadrian martyrs the family and he may be represented by the central figure holding a bow.

The pictorial marquetry is richly peopled. The sky is full of all manner of birds. The background is crowded with architectural detail of battlements and steeples. The ground is teeming with wildlife, with dogs representing Saint Eustace as the patron saint of hunters, as well as curious rabbits, monkeys, bears and even a large toad. With its confection of designs and motifs, the marquetry on this important table reflects a Germanic abstract representation of pictorial form, referencing the densely populated narratives of Albrecht Dürer.

In the decoration to this important table, we can see a distinct layering of perspective and pattern, the intarsia disposing figures and elements within a two-dimensional plane to create an intriguing atmospheric world of myth and legend, of depth emerging out of flatness.

Fine Augsburg marquetry panels remained popular throughout the ages and were frequently re-used to create or embellish new items of furniture, such as this magnificent table. Their inclusion was not only for their highly decorative appeal, but to contemporary eyes, a means by which to imbue a new creation with a sense of true historical authenticity.

The importance of such panels is often reflected in the high cost involved in repurposing them. A fine example of this is the celebrated 16th century cabinet on stand in the collection of the V&A, enlarged and adapted by the London cabinetmakers Morant & Boyd circa 1850 (V&A O187250).

Cabinet on Stand in the V&A Museum London with Augsburg marquetry, adapted circa 1850 probably by Morant & Son of New Bond Street, London. (V&A O187250)

THE MODEL – Baldock; Town & Emanuel; Toms & Luscombe.
The rigourous ormolu mounts and exaggerated curves give this table a distinctly ‘Rokoko’ look, and it is often speculated that the design must be German.

A desk sold by the Rothschild family at auction in 1937 is thought to be the original model (Catalogue of the Magnificent Contents of 148 Piccadilly, Sotheby’s, held on the premises, 19-22 April, 1937, lot 259 pl. XLI).

The Rothschild Desk, thought to be the original model, first copied with variations by Baldock for the Duke of Buccleuch in 1831 and sold from 148 Piccadilly in 1937.

Sometime earlier, the Rothschild desk presumably passed through the hands of the prominent furniture dealer Edward Holmes Baldock (1777–1845). For it is Baldock who is credited with first copying the model and supplying, in 1831, a pair of desks to Walter Francis, 5th Duke of Buccleuch (d. 1884). The pair were originally supplied for Dalkeith Palace, but are now with the Buccleuch family at Bowhill House, in the Scottish Borders.

One of a pair of related ‘magnificent tables sumptuously mounted in ormolu’ supplied to the Duke of Buccleuch at Dalkeith Palace, photographed in 1911 (Country Life, 1911).

Writing about the present table, Christopher Payne speculates that it would have been characteristic for Edward Holmes Baldock to have acquired the Augsburg marquetry and repurposed it as he was “constantly sourcing old furniture and ‘spare parts’ from Europe”. Payne hypothesises that Baldock would not have made the Buccleuch bureaux but would have outsourced the work to Town & Emanuel. In turn the model passed to their successors, Toms & Luscombe (C. Payne, British Furniture 1820-1920: The Luxury Market, Woodbridge, 2023, p. 95).

Another virtually identical kingwood bureau plat is in the collection of the earls of Normanton at Somerley, Hampshire, one of a pair sold by the London maker Toms & Luscombe in 1871. A bureau plat of this model, in ‘Boulle’ marquetry, was exhibited by Toms & Luscombe in the furniture court at the 1862 International Exhibition in London. A further bureau plat was purchased from Wright & Mansfield, Bond Street, by Mervyn Wingfield, 7th Viscount Powerscourt (d. 1904) for Powerscourt, Co. Wicklow, Ireland and was sold in 1984.

Town & Emanuel belonged to the first generation of London firms to deal extensively in revivalist and antique furniture. They established their business at 103 New Bond Street in about 1830 and remained at that address until 1849 when they held a sale of their remaining stock caused by the illness of Mr. Emanuel. Early descriptions of the firm in the street directories grew increasingly elaborate: starting as curiosity dealers, by 1840 they were described as dealers in and importers of antique furniture, curiosities and pictures, and by 1842 they had established themselves as “Manufacturerers of Buhl Marqueterie, Resner & Carved Furniture, Tripods, Screens . of the Finese & Most Superb Designs of the Times of Louis 14th. Splendid Cabinets & Tables inlaid with Fine Sevre & Dresden China.” (F. Collard, ‘Town & Emanuel’, Furniture History, vol. 32 (1996), p. 81). On their closure in 1849, their 103 New Bond Street premises were bought by a former assistant of the firm, Josiah Toms, who with William Luscombe, founded Toms & Luscombe. Continuing to specialise in ‘buhl’ and marquetry furniture, Toms & Luscombe are known to have purchased extensively at the auction of Town & Emanuel’s stock. The 1851 Census records five cabinet-makers, two buhl-cutters, two polishers and four brass finishers in the employment of Toms & Luscombe.

The bureau in situ, private collection, circa 2003.