Live Auction 18361Wilton Crescent: A Robert Kime Interior
A CHINESE EXPORT ROSEWOOD HARLEQUIN TABLE
Lot 130

A CHINESE EXPORT ROSEWOOD HARLEQUIN TABLE

MID-18TH CENTURY

Closed23 July 2020

Price Realised

GBP 23,750

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A CHINESE EXPORT ROSEWOOD HARLEQUIN TABLE
MID-18TH CENTURY
The rounded rectangular triple-hinged top enclosing a plain surface, a green baize-lined playing-surface with dished counter and candle wells, and a writing-surface with spring-fitted rising section, revealing five pigeon-holes above five small drawers and an easel, on gateleg-action cabriole legs headed by lion masks, on claw-and-ball feet and anti-friction castors
30 ½ in. (77.5 cm.) high; 30 in. (76 cm.) wide; 15 ¾ in. (40 cm.) deep, closed

Anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 23 April 1998, lot 223.

Specialist note


The harlequin multi-purpose mechanical table for eating, writing and gaming was named after the master-of-disguises in the 18th Century Commedia del Arte theatre. A related design for a harlequin table of this form is included on the trade card of Thomas Potter (d.1782), cabinet-maker of High Holborn (now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, ref. no. E.2320-1889).
An English table of this model is at Temple Newsam House, Leeds and is illustrated alongside Potter's design in G. Gilbert, Furniture at Temple Newsam House and Lotherton Hall , Vol. III, Leeds, 1998, pp. 658-660.
A similar padouk Harlequin table, with shell-carved legs was sold anonymously, Christie's, London, 1 October 1992, lot 69. Another example of similar form, but with a simpler overall design and lappet-headed legs, was offered anonymously at Sotheby's, London, 5 June, 2007, lot 186.