Country Regency Burl Table

Description

Good early 19th Century English country Regency octagonal wine table, the solid book-matched burl elm top with traces of parcel gilt on chamfered edge, standing on pencil chamfered shaft, the three scrolled legs joined to knotched base, the whole with good color and patination.
Note, this charming table follows the overall design of very fashionable Regency furniture made in London in the Louis XIV “antique” taste, often utilizing brass and tortoise shell inlay, by such makers as Thomas Parker. Parker took his inspiration from Andre-Charles Boulle, the leading French ebeniste of the 17th Century, and the provincial maker of this table no doubt took his inspiration from one of Parker’s (or his imitator’s) tables, or even possibly from a table by Boulle himself. It is fun to imagine the circumstances under which this table came to be. Did an estate carpenter happen to see a fine table with richly patterned tortoiseshell and gilt bronze mounts while employed in a grand house and think “I’ll have a go at making one of those.” using burl wood instead of tortoise and gold varnish instead of gilt bronze? One cannot help but wonder!