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Lot Essay
This center table, with concentric bands of richly figured contrasting timber and brass and ivory inlay, is distinctively the work of the firm of George Oakley, which produced fashionable furniture in the 'Grecian' style, specializing in 'buhl' inlay, in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries (C. Gilbert and G. Beard, eds., Dictionary of English Furniture Makers 1660-1840, 1986, pp.658-660). Listed at various locations from 1789 to 1819, the firm's popular designs and quality craftsmanship earned them royal patronage in addition to private commissions.
George Oakley was a key proponent of the 'Grecian' style after the French manner as introduced to London around 1800 by the connoisseur Thomas Hope (d. 1831) and popularized through the publication of the guide to his Duchess Street mansion entitled Household Furniture and Interior Decoration, 1807. Oakley was greatly influenced by Hope's aesthetic as he employed many of the 'antique' forms seen in Hope's guide in his own work. Examples of a pieces drawing on Hope's patterns executed using the combination of multiple exotic timber veneers and for which Oakley had become include: an ebony inlaid mahogany center table sold from the Library at Gaiter's Green, Christie's London, 6 March 2003, lot 6; and also an ormolu-mounted and brass-inlaid rosewood, ebony and parcel-gilt writing table almost certainly designed by Thomas Hope for his brother Henry Philip Hope and attributed to George Oakley was sold 3 July 1997, lot 60 (£221,500).
George Oakley was a key proponent of the 'Grecian' style after the French manner as introduced to London around 1800 by the connoisseur Thomas Hope (d. 1831) and popularized through the publication of the guide to his Duchess Street mansion entitled Household Furniture and Interior Decoration, 1807. Oakley was greatly influenced by Hope's aesthetic as he employed many of the 'antique' forms seen in Hope's guide in his own work. Examples of a pieces drawing on Hope's patterns executed using the combination of multiple exotic timber veneers and for which Oakley had become include: an ebony inlaid mahogany center table sold from the Library at Gaiter's Green, Christie's London, 6 March 2003, lot 6; and also an ormolu-mounted and brass-inlaid rosewood, ebony and parcel-gilt writing table almost certainly designed by Thomas Hope for his brother Henry Philip Hope and attributed to George Oakley was sold 3 July 1997, lot 60 (£221,500).