Object Description
An extremely well-drawn and very beautiful English three drawer writing table profusely decorated on the top and all sides with floral and foliate marquetry executed on a ground of straight grained walnut banded with tulipwood. Original Moroccan leather and brass mounts. England. C.1835
A nearly identical example of this writing desk is included within the current collection at Goodwood House, West Sussex which retains a trade label from “Blake of Mount Street”
Robert Blake is known principally for the ormolu-mounted, tortoiseshell and ebony ‘Boulle’ commodes he executed directly after the celebrated pair supplied by André-Charles Boulle in 1708-09 for the Chamber of Louis XIV at the Grand Trianon, of which one pair is in the Frick Collection, New York. His creations tended to follow the great pieces of French 18th century furniture that were being collected in the early years of the 19th century by such francophile collectors as George, Prince of Wales, later George IV, George Watson-Taylor, William Beckford and Francis Seymour-Conway, 3rd Marquess of Hertford.
Relatively little is known about Blake and his firm, Robert Blake & Co. which continued under his four sons, George, Charles, James and Henry. Robert is listed in Robson’s Commercial Directory of 1823 at 8 Stephen Street, Tottenham Court Road, as “Buhl Cutter” and again in 1826 in the Post Office Directory, as “Cabinet inlayer and Buhl manufacturer”, and was certainly connected with the well-known John Webb, of Old Bond Street. The signature on the present lot may pre-date 1840, when the firm became known as R. Blake & Sons, renaming itself Blake; Geo & Brothers in 1841; then George Blake & Co., cabinetmaker, 130 Mount Street, London, and also still in Stephen Street in 1844; George Blake in 1846-1850, 53 Mount Street; and 1851-1853(?) George Blake, 53 Mortimer Street. The Stephen Street premises was still used by family members, variously as ‘Blake, J. & H’, by 1853 ‘Blake, Chas. & H.,’ listed until 1880.An extremely well-drawn and very beautiful English three drawer writing table profusely decorated on the top and all sides with floral and foliate marquetry executed on a ground of straight grained walnut banded with tulipwood. Original Moroccan leather and brass mounts. England. C.1835
A nearly identical example of this writing desk is included within the current collection at Goodwood House, West Sussex which retains a trade label from “Blake of Mount Street”
Robert Blake is known principally for the ormolu-mounted, tortoiseshell and ebony ‘Boulle’ commodes he executed directly after the celebrated pair supplied by André-Charles Boulle in 1708-09 for the Chamber of Louis XIV at the Grand Trianon, of which one pair is in the Frick Collection, New York. His creations tended to follow the great pieces of French 18th century furniture that were being collected in the early years of the 19th century by such francophile collectors as George, Prince of Wales, later George IV, George Watson-Taylor, William Beckford and Francis Seymour-Conway, 3rd Marquess of Hertford.
Relatively little is known about Blake and his firm, Robert Blake & Co. which continued under his four sons, George, Charles, James and Henry. Robert is listed in Robson’s Commercial Directory of 1823 at 8 Stephen Street, Tottenham Court Road, as “Buhl Cutter” and again in 1826 in the Post Office Directory, as “Cabinet inlayer and Buhl manufacturer”, and was certainly connected with the well-known John Webb, of Old Bond Street. The signature on the present lot may pre-date 1840, when the firm became known as R. Blake & Sons, renaming itself Blake; Geo & Brothers in 1841; then George Blake & Co., cabinetmaker, 130 Mount Street, London, and also still in Stephen Street in 1844; George Blake in 1846-1850, 53 Mount Street; and 1851-1853(?) George Blake, 53 Mortimer Street. The Stephen Street premises was still used by family members, variously as ‘Blake, J. & H’, by 1853 ‘Blake, Chas. & H.,’ listed until 1880.