A Fine Victorian Marquetry Centre Table Attributed to Blake and Co and E. H. Baldock c.1845

A Fine Victorian Marquetry Centre Table Attributed to Blake and Co and E. H. Baldock c.1845, The basic form of this outstanding table relates to a design by Richard Bridgens and was published in 1838 as plate 16 in his Furniture with Candelabra.

The central burr panel surrounded with exquisite marquetry  and cross banded in kingwood and tulip wood, upon three shaped and cross banded legs.

The table has a circular top with kingwood and walnut panels and is profusely inlaid with scrollwork and floral marquetry with surprising fantastical elements such as human faces disguised amongst the scrolls. The apron of the table is highly stylised and features a wavy, asymmetrical border. The column base leads down to three spreading legs with knurled or scroll feet.

Tables of this sort with extremely complex and accomplished marquetry were created by the Blake family of makers, usually in conjunction with the dealer and retailer Edward Holmes Baldock who was responsible for creating some of the most important aristocratic furniture collections of the 19^th century and also supplying modern pieces to clients such as King Louis Philippe of France and the Duke of Buccleuch, both documented clients. Pieces supplied by Baldock can also be found in the Royal Collection with George IV in particular buying several pieces from Baldock such as this chest of drawers

https://www.rct.uk/collection/33474/chest-of-drawer

The marquetry on the present piece is entirely typical of the Blake family pieces, both in stylistic terms and in terms of the quality of execution and design.

Edward Holmes Baldock and the Blake Family

1. H. Baldock seems to have begun his career c.1805 as an antique dealer, selling everything from china and bronzes to Oriental art and, later, furniture. He was initially a specialist in china and glass, and was “purveyor of earthenware and glass” to William IV and “purveyor of china” to Queen Victoria. By 1821, his trade adverts began to reflect an interest in “antique….and ornamental furniture”. Baldock appears to have supplied antique pieces as well as acting as something of a 19th century machand mercier in commissioning new pieces of exceptional quality, frequently incorporating fine ormolu mounts and marquetry of the highest standard.

Martin Levy has argued convincingly that the fine marquetry on pieces supplied by Baldock was likely to have been created in the workshops of the Blake family of marquetry specialists (see M. Levy E.H.Baldock and the Blake Family: Further Evidence in Furniture History Society Newsletter No. 158, May 2005). The Blake dynasty of inlay specialists was founded around 1820 by Robert Blake and then continued through various changes of name and location until, by the 1840s, their workshops were based in the Tottenham Court Road area and Mount Street in Mayfair.