Lot 16: A LOUIS XVI ORMOLU-MOUNTED TULIPWOOD, AMARANTH, SYCAMORE, FRUITWOOD AND PARQUETRY TABLE EN CHIFFONIERE

A LOUIS XVI ORMOLU-MOUNTED TULIPWOOD, AMARANTH, SYCAMORE, FRUITWOOD AND PARQUETRY TABLE EN CHIFFONIERE
BY GUILLAUME KEMP, CIRCA 1775, LATER RETAILED BY EDWARD HOLMES BALDOCK
Inlaid overall with rosette-trellis, the rectangular top with pierced three-quarter gallery inlaid with trellis in an oval frame surrounded by laurel leaves, above three drawers, the top drawer with three compartments with later silvered-metal fittings and a gilt-tooled green leather-lined writing-surface concealing a compartment, flanked by ribbon and floral mounts, above square guttae-headed tapering legs, on square sabots, stamped 'G. KEMP', 'JME' and 'E.H.B.', the legs partially re-veneered, the key escutcheons replaced
29 in. (74 cm.) high; 17 in. (43 cm.) wide; 13 in. (33 cm.) deep

Mrs. Miriam Leader, sold Christie's London, 15 July 1955, lot 159 (£950).
Acquired from Maurice Segoura, Paris.

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 15% on the buyer's premium
Guillaume Kemp, maitre in 1764.

This elegant table is embellished with a bold trellis and rosette pattern to the sides and the top has a lighter pattern within an oval and laurel branches at the corners. A very similar table by Kemp was in the Alexander Collection, sold Christie's New York, 20 April 1999, lot 163. These patterns of parquetry were not exclusive to Kemp, and similar examples are known by both RVLC and Godefroy Dester. A stamped table by Dester was in the Rosebery/Rothschild Collection at Mentmore Towers, Buckinghamshire, sold Sotheby's house sale, 18 May 1977, lot 441.

The English marchand-mercier Edward Holmes Baldock (d. 1845), 'Purveyor of China, Earthenware and Glass to William IV' (1832-7) and 'Purveyor of China to Queen Victoria' (1838-45), was both a retailer of 'antique' French furniture - particularly late 17th Century Boulle and Louis XV floral marquetry - as well as a manufacturer of furniture and objets de luxe in the French taste. Established in Hanway Street, London, he often employed the brand 'E.H.B.' and was responsible for the formation of many of the greatest early 19th Century collections of French furniture in England, including those of George IV, the Dukes of Buccleuch and Northumberland, William Beckford and George Byng, MP.