An antique slate-top table by Magnus

A rare and unusual slate-top table by Magnus
The shaped top is decorated in Magnus’s unique method of enamelling slate to imitate pietra dura and sienna marble, with a border of fruiting cherries with birds at each corner on a black ground. The ornate gilded iron base comprises scrolling end supports joined by a turned stretcher.

Literature: George Eugene Magnus was born in 1801, he spent some time in the Potteries area of Staffordshire and married Mary Boyle, the daughter of an earthenware manufacturer. Evidently he learned something of the art of decorating, glazing and firing pottery which he adapted onto slate to imitate marble and scagliola. In 1840 he patented his process of applying colour and glaze which was fired like enamel, a process he then used to decorate billiard tables and similar items of slate furniture. The extract from the letters patent reads …”The articles which I have manufactured from slate instead of other materials … and which I claim as new and never before made or known, and to the sole manufacture of which I consider myself entitled under the letter patent are billiard tables composed solely of slate that is the frame and legs as well as the bed or table…. Secondly my improvements consist in polishing and finishing such manufactured articles as are required for ornamental purposes by the following process … (here follows a list of instructions for enamelling slate) ….”
Examples of Magnus billiard tables can be found at the Duke of Wellington’s residence at Stratfield Saye, Queen Victoria’s home on the Isle of Wight – Osborne House and in the showrooms of ‘Billiard Room Ltd’ with whom we have exhibited several magnificent tables over the years.

Signed/Inscribed: Signed ‘Magnus’ and bearing the diamond registration mark for 1856.