A REGENCY EBONY-INLAID MAHOGANY KNEEHOLE DRESSING-TABLE

This dressing-table relates to furniture supplied by George Bullock in 1815 to furnish Longwood House, St. Helena, where Napoleon was exiled, and subsequently died. An oak and ebony banded dressing table of a similar model was recorded in the bedroom of the Comte de Montholon (d. 1853) in the inventory taken on Napoleon's death in 1821. This was part of the furnishings claimed by Sir Hudson Lowe, Napoleon's jailer on St. Helena, which accompanied him and his family on their return to England on board the Dunira on 12 July 1821, barely two months after Napoleon's death; sold Christie's, London, 27 November 2003, lot 195. Much of the furniture at Longwood during Napoleon's imprisonment was subsequently labelled with a plaque. Two further comparable dressing-tables from Longwood are shown in Bullock's plans and elevations, room nos. 5 and 14 (M. Levy, 'Napoleon and George Bullock', Furniture History, 1998, p. 21, fig. 22; p. 91).