Antique 4ft 6" diam Burr Walnut Marquetry Dining / Center Table C1860 19th C

This is an fine and rare antique English mid Victorian, burr walnut, tulip wood banded, ebonised and fruitwood marquetry, centre table, in the manner of Edward Holmes Baldock and circa 1860 in date.

The shaped segmentally veneered circular top is beautifully marquetry inlaid with assorted flowers within shaped cartouches and features a beautiful scrolled foliate carved edge.

It sits on a cabochon and acanthus wrapped baluster column with  three cabochon embedded, foliate scrolled and rocaille carved, scrolled outswept legs, with shell clasped feet and recessed castors.
 
 
It is extremely versatile and can be placed in your hallway, living room, dining room, or reception.
 
 
 
Condition:
 
In excellent condition having been beautifully cleaned, polished and waxed in our workshops, please see photos for confirmation.
 

Baldock, Edward Holmes (1777–1845)

In 1805 Baldock's name first appears as the freehold owner of 7 Hanway Street, London. Over the years he expanded his premises. By 1840 his property in this street comprised nos 1 and 2, both with back premises, and in addition he owned a yard and no. 3, which he let. It was in 1 and 2 Hanway Street that he carried on business up to 1843 when he retired, selling his stock and moving to a fashionable residential address, Hyde Park Place. According to one 19th-century source, the business was taken over by Frederick Litchfield's father. He was buried in St Pancras Church, Euston, where he is commemorated by a marble memorial tablet on the north wall, dedicated jointly to him and Mary Frances Westoby.

In 1805 he described himself as dealer in china and glass. By 1821 he was styled in the Post Office Directories as antique furniture and ornamental china dealer, and in 1826 he described his activities in a bill heading as ‘buying, selling, exchanging and valuing China, Cabinets, Screens, Bronzes etc.’. Though Baldock's business consisted primarily in dealing in antique porcelain and furniture — largely foreign — he repaired, remodelled and altered existing furniture. He also produced designs for new pieces and had them made.

In 1836 Baldock sold French eighteenth-century furniture to Lady Stafford (Countess of Sutherland) for Dunrobin Castle, and in 1842 Scotland’s leading country house architect, William Burns, recommended to his patron O. Tyndall Bruce of Falkland House that ‘for Cabinets and China, do not omit going to Baldock’s Hanway Street, Oxford Street… which is the first place in London’.

In 1841 the Duke of Buccleuch was sent drawings of bedroom furniture as well as working drawings of an octagonal table, a bookcase and three stalls. A design of a table in the Buccleuch papers which is annotated ‘No. 3 Amboyna wood ground with coloured flowers’ is almost certainly the preliminary sketch for a table which was later made. Robert Byng (1764-1847) and George Newport, 2nd Earl of Bradford were also customers of Baldock’s. In 1840 he supplied a two encoignures with slab tops to the latter (one illus. FHS Newsletter (February 2017, p. 5). A pair of china cabinets on stands with porcelain mounts, made c.1835-43 for the 3rd Marquis of Lansdowne were sold by auctioneers, Bamfords, in 2007

A number of well-constructed and, in some cases, finely inlaid pieces of furniture are known which are 19th-century in date and which are branded with Baldock's initials, ‘EHB’. While some are pastiches of 18th-century French furniture others are in a contemporary English style. Whether these pieces were both designed by Baldock and made on his premises is impossible to tell. The ‘EHB’ mark cannot be regarded as a maker's stamp in the accepted sense of the term as it is also struck on genuine French 18th-century furniture which merely passed through Baldock's hands.


Burr Walnut
refers to the swirling figure present in nearly all walnut when cut and polished, and especially in the wood taken from the base of the tree where it joins the roots. However the true burr is a rare growth on the tree where hundreds of tiny branches have started to grow. Burr walnut produces some of the most complex and beautiful figuring you can find.
 

Angelica Kauffman, RA (1741 - 1807)

was a Swiss-born Austrian Neoclassical painter who had a successful career in London and Rome. Though born as "Kauffmann", Kauffman is the preferred spelling of her name in English; it is the form she herself used most in signing her correspondence, documents and paintings.

While Kauffman produced many types of art, she identified herself primarily as a history painter, an unusual designation for a woman artist in the 18th century. History painting, was considered the most elite and lucrative category in academic painting during this time period. Under the direction of Sir Joshua Reynolds, the Royal Academy made a strong effort to promote history painting to a native audience who were more interested in commissioning and buying portraits and landscapes.

Despite the popularity that Kauffman enjoyed in British society and her success as an artist, she was disappointed by the relative apathy that the British had towards history painting. Ultimately she left Britain for the continent, where history painting was better established, held in higher esteem and patronized.

The works of Angelica Kauffman have retained their reputation. By 1911, rooms decorated with her work were still to be seen in various quarters. At Hampton Court was a portrait of the duchess of Brunswick; in the National Portrait Gallery, a self-portrait. There were other pictures by her at Paris, at Dresden, in the Hermitage at St Petersburg, in the Alte Pinakothek atMunich, in Kadriorg Palace, Tallinn (Estonia).

Satinwood

is a hard and durable wood with a satinlike sheen, much used in cabinetmaking, especially in marquetry. It comes from two tropical trees of the family Rutaceae (rue family). East Indian or Ceylon satinwood is the yellowish or dark-brown heartwood of Chloroxylon swietenia.

The lustrous, fine-grained, usually figured wood is used for furniture, cabinetwork, veneers, and backs of brushes. West Indian satinwood, sometimes called yellow wood, is considered superior. It is the golden yellow, lustrous, even-grained wood found in the Florida Keys and the West Indies.

It has long been valued for furniture. It is also used for musical instruments, veneers, and other purposes. Satinwood is classified in the division Magnoliophyta, class Magnoliopsida, order Sapindales, family Rutaceae.