A George II brass- and mother-of-pearl-inlaid mahogany tripod tea table, circa 1740, attributed to Frederick Hintz

Jeremy Ltd, November 1996

The design of the present table with its scalloped top inlaid with brass and mother-of-pearl is similar to a group of tables associated with the German-born cabinet-maker Johann Frederick Hintz (d.1776), examples of which are illustrated in Christopher Gilbert and Tessa Murdoch, John Channon and Brass-inlaid Furniture 1730-1760, 1993, pl. XXIV and figs. 149-150. Hintz traded at 'The Porcupine', Newport Street, and on 22nd May, 1738 advertised a sale of 'Choice Tea Boards, etc., all curiously made and inlaid with fine Figures of Brass and Mother of Pearl. They will be sold at a very reasonable rate, the maker Frederick Hintz, designing soon to go abroad', (G. Beard and C. Gilbert, eds., The Dictionary of English Furniture Makers 1660-1840, Leeds, 1986, p.434).

Similar furniture was produced by other cabinet-makers in London at this period, including Abraham Roentgen and John Channon, but Hintz is regarded as the foremost exponent of this style of workmanship (Gilbert & Murdoch, op. cit . pl. XXV & figs.16-17, 145-148, & 155: Ralph Edwards and Percy Macquoid, The Dictionary of English Furniture, rev. ed., 3 vols., 1954, vol. III, P.206, fig. 15; and Christopher Claxton Stevens and Stewart Whittington, 18th century English Furniture, The Norman Adams Collection, 1983, pp.288-289, illus.).

For a similar example, see that in the collections of the Victoria & Albert Museum, London (W.3-1965).