A PAIR OF GEORGE III INLAID SATINWOOD AND WENGE CARD TABLES

This pair of card tables, with their marquetry inlay and engraved woodwork, recall the craftsmanship of the Royal cabinet-maker, ‘tradesman to the Great Wardrobe’, William Gates of St. Martin’s Lane, London (d. after 1800). As the successor to John Bradburn, Gates is first recorded in the Lord Chamberlain’s Great Wardrobe accounts in July 1777. From 1780, he was supplying satinwood and inlaid furniture to the Prince of Wales, later George IV, for his apartments in the Queen’s House, St. James’s Park (Buckingham Palace), including a pair of ‘very fine Sattin wood inlaid commode Tables’, with a writing-drawer in the frieze (RCIN 2475). His oeuvre is characterised by the inclusion of large scale neo-classical marquetry urns often in oval or rectilinear panels, starkly contrasting veneers, engraving, and shading to create pictorial illusion.