Thomas Moore
Head of Department
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Lot 18TP
A William and Mary walnut, fruitwood and holly 'seaweed' or 'arabesque' marquetry side table 1690-1700, in the manner of Gerrit Jensen
1 July 2025, 14:00 BST
London, New Bond StreetSold for £6,400 inc. premium
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Oliver Cornish
Sale Coordinator for Furniture, Sculpture, Rugs & Tapestries
A William and Mary walnut, fruitwood and holly 'seaweed' or 'arabesque' marquetry side table
1690-1700, in the manner of Gerrit Jensen
With ebonised and boxwood stringing, the top, frieze and stretcher inlaid with reserves of assorted shapes and proportions, each tablet replete with elaborate symmetrical interlacing scrolled stylised foliage and rosettes within strung surrounds, with engraved overlapping acanthus borders, the top with a repeating foliate pattern outer surround and an ovolo moulded edge, above one long oak lined frieze drawer, on four angled s-scroll form legs each inlaid with interlacing scrolled foliage, with a shaped H-stretcher centred by an oval reserve, on later bun feet, with a later (probably 19th century removable cedar drawer insert comprised of various open compartments and enclosing one smaller internal pull-out compartment, 113.5cm wide x 76cm deep x 73.5cm high, (44 1/2in wide x 29 1/2in deep x 28 1/2in high)
With ebonised and boxwood stringing, the top, frieze and stretcher inlaid with reserves of assorted shapes and proportions, each tablet replete with elaborate symmetrical interlacing scrolled stylised foliage and rosettes within strung surrounds, with engraved overlapping acanthus borders, the top with a repeating foliate pattern outer surround and an ovolo moulded edge, above one long oak lined frieze drawer, on four angled s-scroll form legs each inlaid with interlacing scrolled foliage, with a shaped H-stretcher centred by an oval reserve, on later bun feet, with a later (probably 19th century removable cedar drawer insert comprised of various open compartments and enclosing one smaller internal pull-out compartment, 113.5cm wide x 76cm deep x 73.5cm high, (44 1/2in wide x 29 1/2in deep x 28 1/2in high)
Footnotes
A very similar 'seaweed' marquetry side table dating to the same William and Mary period as the offered lot sold Christie's, London, 5 April 2001, The Humphrey Whitbread Collection, lot 411.
The origins in terms of the design and configuration of the present table are in the furniture of the Louis XIV period, and this appears to be particularly the case with regards to the architectural and baroque style of its s-scroll form legs. The walnut veneering is interspersed with 'mosaiced' or 'mosaic' inlaid reserves of assorted shapes and proportions seemingly encompassing, or emanating from, a central tablet.
Each of these reserves are replete with distinctive 'seaweed' or 'arabesque' marquetry largely comprised of filigreed stylised foliage. Such marquetry, which is predominantly seen on furniture made during the period 1690-1700, appears frequently on pieces produced by Gerrit Jensen (d. 1715). Jensen operated as 'Cabinet-Maker in Ordinary to William and Mary' and is recorded as being the one responsible for providing the Royal rulers with a glass case inlaid with 'fine markatree' for Kensington Palace. This is illustrated in R. Edwards and M. Jourdain, Georgian Cabinet-Makers, 1955, London, p. 123.
Comparable inlaid patterns to those on the above table feature on a display cabinet of circa 1710 that was executed by the cabinet maker, Samuel Bennett, and which appears in C. Gilbert, Pictorial Dictionary of Marked London Furniture, 1996, Leeds, fig. 112, p. 105. Bennett is documented as operating from Monmouth Square from circa 1700 onwards and his death is recorded as being in 1741.
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