Library Table in the Adam Manner with Noble Provenance
Library Table in the Adam Manner with Noble Provenance
A Library Table in the Adam Manner Almost Certainly by Maple & Company.
Constructed in a mellow patinated satinwood, with fine marquetry pictorial and foliate inlays utilising specimen woods including green stained sycamore; of shaped serpentine form with projecting bow ends, rising from castor shod tapering, turned and collared legs, adorned with fluting and lobes: two banks of three drawers flank the arched kneehole, with a longer central drawer- all lockable and having mahogany linings and quadrant mouldings, and being dressed with gilt bronze looped handles having elliptical backplates; the ends adorned with elliptical cartouches depicting designs of Diana the Huntress with her hounds to dexter, and Leda & the Swan to sinister; extensively and expertly inlaid with marquetry foliates, urns, bellflowers in the neo-classical manner of the Adam Brothers; the platform has a green tooled leather writing surface, and a thumb nail edge.
Circa 1890.
H: 30 in / 76 cm | W: 51 in / 129 cm | D: 27.5 in / 70 cm
Price: £POA.
Provenance
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second is shown in a photograph, taken at Balmoral, with her library table, identical to this desk.
Biography
Maple & Company
Founded in 1841 by John Maple, manufacturing and retailing from the hub of the furniture centre in London's Tottenham Court Road, and through the founder & his son's drive and excellence of the products of the company, expanded greatly, to have further workshops and points of sale in both Paris and Buenos Aires, and later, a shop in Smyrna. Clientele included Queen Victoria, King Edward V11th, members of the Royal Household, the King of Siam, and the Nicholas, Tsar of Russia. Later, Maples would furnish the Royal yachts, the QE1, QE2 and the Queen Mary, as well as hotels in Nice, London, Paris and Siam.