An olivewood writing table by Wright and Mansfield

This freestanding writing table has a rectangular leather inset top surmounted by a gallery with an openwork ormolu grille and four columns. The frieze has one long and two short mahogany-lined drawers. It is decorated throughout with figured olivewood panels and ormolu mounts, while the tapering legs have ormolu stop-fluting. Stamped in the middle drawer ‘Wright and Mansfield’ and ‘104 New Bond St.’. Locks stamped ‘Royal letter patent four levers safety lock’. English, circa 1860.

Wright and Mansfield, 104 Bond Street, rose to prominence after exhibiting, amongst other things, a painted piano, two bookcases and a fireplace inlaid with Wedgwood plaques at the 1862 International Exhibition in London. They consolidated this success by winning the only gold medal ever awarded to an English cabinetmaker at the Exposition Universelle Paris, 1867 with a ‘remarkable satinwood, marquetry, bronze and Wedgwood mounted cabinet’. The gold medal was presented personally to Wright and Mansfield by Napoleon III and the cabinet was subsequently purchased by the Victoria and Albert Museum for the enormous sum, in those days, of £800. Please see the following pages for other tables attributed to Wright and Mansfield.