AN ORMOLU AND SEVRES STYLE PORCELAIN GUERIDON

This splendid guéridon in the French taste combines Louis XIV and Louis XVI flourishes popular in English aristocratic houses in the second quarter of the 19th century. The leading London dealer of ancien régime furniture, Edward Holmes Baldock (d. 1845), is synonymous with this distinctive style of porcelain-mounted furniture and repeatedly designed figural mounts in the form of climbing dragons and dolphins such as those on the present lot. Granted the Royal warrant to King William IV and subsequently Queen Victoria, other celebrated patrons of 'Baldock Sèvres' included the Earl of Lowther and the Duke of Buccleuch.  The dolphin-form feet and entwined dragons relate most specifically to a Sèvres porcelain-mounted potpourri vase sold Christie’s, London, 1 November 2001, lot 43.