EARLY 19TH CENTURY

The cabinet of black-figured rosewood is inset with brass inlay of the type popularised by the émigré craftsman Louis le Gaigneur (fl. 1814 - 21) who termed himself a 'French Buhl Manufacturer', the firm of Town and Emmanuel of 103 Bond St, 'Manufacturers of Buhl Marqueterie' and Thomas Parker of Air St., Piccadilly, who in 1813 supplied a pair of 'Boulle’ marquetry coffers-on-stands to the Prince Regent which remain in the British Royal Collection. The intricate buhl inlay refers to prototypes as executed by Louis XIV's Royal ébéniste André-Charles Boulle and the designs of Jean Bérain.