Object Description
This wonderful antique tea table, or etagere, is a beautiful piece of late 19th Century French design: built from mahogany but mounted all over with skilfully-cast gilt bronze decorations. The upper tier is supported by beautiful gilt bronze hoof legs, decorated with scrolls and acanthus leaves in a nod to the Rococo style of the 18th Century. Around the upper tier there is a further pierced gilt bronze gallery, with a handle at each end.
The lower shelf of the table is oval in shape and mounted around its sides with a gilt bronze frieze of laurel leaves, and the entire piece is set on four straight, tapering legs which terminate in gilt bronze feet. There is a mark on one of the ormolu mounts reading ‘EM’ which stands Maison Mottheau, a prestigious French furniture firm established in the 19th Century.