A GEORGE III INDIAN ROSEWOOD, HAREWOOD AND PARQUETRY SERPENTINE SIDE TABLE

The use of trellis or lattice marquetry in furniture in the mid-late 18th century originates from France. Although it was rarely used in England, it is found on commodes by the Swedish émigré cabinet-maker Christopher Fuhrlohg (1740-87), who had been working in France, and from 1767-68 was employed by the cabinet-maker John Linnell (1729-96) at his workshop at 28 Berkeley Square, London. This type of marquetry can be seen on a commode by Fuhrlohg in The Lady Lever Art Gallery, Liverpool and a set of three commodes in the Metropolitan Musuem of Art, New York (L. Wood, Catalogue of Commodes, London, 1994, p. 106-110, no. 9; p. 110, figs. 104-106; Accession no. 66.64.2-4). A design for a table with a deep drawer to be decorated with marquetry in a trellis pattern by Linnell is in the Victoria & Albert Museum (E.256 1929). Related pattern marquetry is found on a pair of side tables made by Linnell for Inveraray Castle, Scotland, the ancestral home of the Dukes of Argyll, on another pair of side tables attributed to Linnell, and now at Heveningham Hall, Suffolk, and a further pair of tables attributed to Linnell, commissioned by the 2nd Earl of Ashburnham for 19 Dover Street, London (H. Hayward, P. Kirkham, William and John Linnell, London, 1980, pp. 161-163, figs. 307-311).
Another contemporary cabinet-maker, John Cobb (1715-78) was also incorporating trellis marquetry in his furniture; a pair of commodes with trellis decoration to the cabinet doors is related by Lucy Wood to a group of commodes attributed to Cobb, one of which has a similar trellis pattern to the top (Wood, op. cit., p. 94, figs. 84-85).