A SWEDISH GILT-METAL MOUNTED GILTWOOD AND ASBYDIABAS PORPHYRY CONSOLE TABLE

The Stockholm cabinet-maker Pehr Ljung (1743-1819) specialised in carved giltwood items of furniture in late Gustavian style, and was apparently particularly renowned for his finely-carved mirrors and console tables, the latter often with precious porphyry tops such as the present example ('Porphyre, la Pierre Royale', exh. cat, Paris, 1990, fig. 96). Ljung worked at almost all the Royal residences but particularly at the Royal Palace in Stockholm from 1792, when new decorations were being carried out for Duke Charles to the designs of Louis Masreliez (H. Groth, 'Neoclassicism in the North', London 1990, pp. 28-29)