A WILLIAM AND MARY SEAWEED MARQUETRY, ROSEWOOD AND WALNUT CENTER TABLE

The table features delicately rendered 'seaweed' or 'arabesque' marquetry whose character and pattern relate to the work of Gerrit Jensen (d. 1715), pre-eminent 'Cabbinet maker and Glasse seller' who supplied furniture for the Royal Palaces from 1690 through 1714. The design to the top incorporates masks. Similar masks appear on a chest-of-drawers illustrated by Adam Bowett, who suggests Jensen as the maker (see A. Bowett, English Furniture 1660-1714 from Charles II to Queen Anne, Woodbridge, 2002, p. 202, fig. 7:13); recently sold by Christie's New York, 11 October 2007, lot 210. The chest's design also features a central crown, further comparing to a writing table of 'fine markatree with a Crown & cypher' that was supplied by Jensen for Kensington House in 1690 for 22 10s (R. W. Symonds, 'Gerrit Jensen, Cabinet-maker to the Royal Household,' The Connoisseur, January-June 1935, vol. 95, pp. 268-269, figs. I and II).
A cabinet-on-stand in the collection at Fairfax House, York features notably similar marquetry panels on an oyster-veneered ground and the same profile legs (see A. Bowett, op. cit., fig. 7:12).