ATTRIBUTED TO PIERRE LANGLOIS, CIRCA 1760

The French fashion for this style of Lady's table was introduced to London by the Tottenham Court Road ébéniste Pierre Langlois (d.1767) and was illustrated amongst the 'inlaid work' or 'Meubles, inscrutez de fleurs en bois et marqueteries...'advertised in his trade sheet (P. Thornton & W. Rieder, 'Pierre Langlois: Ebéniste. Part 1', The Connoisseur, December 1971, p. 284). Langlois invoiced one such hinged-top and stretcher-trayed table known as a table en chiffonnier or vide poche in 1759. When supplied at a cost of 9 guineas to the 4th Duke of Bedford, it was described as a 'table de vide poche incruste de fleur de bois violette des indes enjolivee de ornement de bronze doree ...'(ibid., p. 283 and illustrated in G. Worsley, 'Woburn Abbey', Country Life, 22 April 1993, p. 55, fig. 9). This table's elegantly serpentined form corresponds to that of 'A Table inlaid Woods by Langlois £8' purchased by Elizabeth Duchess of Northumberland in the early 1760s (P. Thornton & W. Rieder, 'Pierre Langlois: Ebéniste. Part 3', The Connoisseur, April 1972, p. 258, fig. 4). Its surface is strewn with trompe l'oeil sprigs of Venus's sacred roses, accompanying a poetic tablet. This comprises a sacred urn enriched with flowered and laurel-festooned Roman foliage in the antique or arabesque manner adopted around 1770 and later popularized by Thomas Chippendale Junior's Sketches of Ornament, 1779.

This table bears similarities to a work-table attributed to Langlois, sold Christie's, London, 16 April 1998, lot 133 ($27,600). A further related work table attributed to Langlois, with the same laurel medallion to the top, was included in the Gyrn Castle Sale; Christie's House Sale; 17 July 2006, lot 523. Another from Broadlands, Hampshire is illustrated in H. A. Tipping, English Homes, Period VI, vol.I, Late Georgian, 1760-1820, London, 1926, p.251, fig.392.