.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
The cabinet-maker George Oakley (d. 1840) was among the specialist manufacturers of Grecian-black calamander furniture, ormolu-enriched in the French fashion and with 'buhl' inlay, as seen in the brass stars in the above lot. He ran one of the more successful Regency London firms with various associates producing stylish furniture for, among others, George, Prince of Wales, later George IV (see: The Dictionary of English Furniture-Makers, Leeds, 1986, pp. 654-660). The firm was granted a royal warrant in 1799 after receiving a visit from Queen Charlotte and other members of the Royal family upon which '...her MAJESTY, the Duke and Duchess of YORK , and the PRINCESSES, &c., highly approved of the splendid variety which has justly attracted the notice of the fashionable world' (Morning Chronicle, May 1799).
The same distinctive brass inlay in ebony on a calamander ground features on a large documented commission supplied by George Oakley for Charles Madryll Cheere at Papworth Hall, Cambridge, after 1809. A games table from Papworth Hall, subsequently inherited by Mrs. Stileman is illustrated in R. Edwards, ed., The Dictionary of English Furniture, Woodbridge, Suffolk, 1954, vol. III, p. 202, fig. 42. A nest of tables similarly inlaid was sold anonymously, Christie's, New York, 21 January 1999, lot 476.
The same distinctive brass inlay in ebony on a calamander ground features on a large documented commission supplied by George Oakley for Charles Madryll Cheere at Papworth Hall, Cambridge, after 1809. A games table from Papworth Hall, subsequently inherited by Mrs. Stileman is illustrated in R. Edwards, ed., The Dictionary of English Furniture, Woodbridge, Suffolk, 1954, vol. III, p. 202, fig. 42. A nest of tables similarly inlaid was sold anonymously, Christie's, New York, 21 January 1999, lot 476.