A GEORGE I GILT-GESSO SIDE TABLE

The pier-table top, richly modelled in bas-relief, comprises palm-flowers and an acanthus-flower framed within a flowered ribbon-scrolled mosaic in the Louis XIV antique manner. The fashion was popularised in the early 18th Century by the ornamental pattern-book or Oeuvres of 1712 issued by William III's 'architect' Daniel Marot (d.1752). Similar patterned tops feature on a pair of pier-tables at Blair Castle, Scotland (A. Coleridge, 'William Masters and some early 18th Century furniture at Blair Castle, Scotland', The Connoisseur, October, 1963, p.78, fig 2). Among the most celebrated cabinet-makers working in this technique was James Moore (d.1726) of Short's Gardens, St. Giles-in-the-Fields.