A Regency Period Ormolu Mounted & Brass Inlaid Rosewood Sofa Table
Height: 28.75" 73cm
Width: 31" 79cm
Length: 64.5" 163cm
This highly decorative sofa table retains its darkly figured rosewood veneer which has been inlaid with brass decoration. The quality of the additional brass mounts to the base and the consummate skill with which the inlay has been cut into the rosewood are a clear indication of a highly gifted maker, certainly one based in London.
If ever there was a wood that epitomised the Regency period, it would have to be rosewood. Here we see the rosewood inlaid with brass and because the wood has retained its dark colour, the contrast is quite marked and very different to the effect one would have seen on the inlaid and banded examples from the Sheraton period. Indeed, it was Sheraton himself who commented that "cross-banding is now laid aside for the more durable work in solid brass".
Apart from the quality, this table exhibits knowledge of the most up to date fashions in London in the early 19th century. Indeed, one could suggest that the most plausible maker was Louis le Gaigneur, a cabinet maker working almost exclusively for George IV, who was setting the fashion in his French inspired furnishings of Carlton House.
English, Circa 1815
Acquired by Sir Sydney Barratt from Temple Williams Ltd., London, 27 June 1960 (as probably by Louis Constantin Le Gaigneur of Queen Street) and by descent.
 "Regency Period Ormolu Mounted & Brass Inlaid Rosewood Sofa Table")
