ATTRIBUTED TO GEORGE BLAKE & CO. and retailed by edward holmes baldock bureau plat London, circa 1830

G. de Bellaigue, 'Edward Holmes Baldock,' The Connoisseur, Parts I and II, August 1975, pp. 290-299 and September 1975, pp. 18-25

M. P. Levy, 'E. H. Baldock and the Blake Family: Further Evidence,' The Furniture History Society Newsletter, May 2005, no. 158, pp. 1-2

Sotheby's, London, November 2, 1990, footnote to lot 231

The present lot is in the style of a Louis XV bureau plat. Such pieces were often thought to be French made, but examination by Christopher Payne in Nineteenth Century European Furniture, Antique Collectors’ Club, Woodbridge, 1981, pp. 305 and 317, showed clearly that they were English-made. The marquetry on the present lot has recently been associated with that of the Blake family of marquetry cutters; indeed, it appears that the Blakes were a supplier to Baldock, who, in turn, furnished some of the most important houses in the kingdom. A gift to The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1959 of a piano with similar but far more profuse foliage, signed George Henry Blake (Mus. No. 59.76), was an early clue to the maker of a readily-identifiable style of marquetry. A table discussed by de Bellaigue in Part II of his article on Baldock shows an octagonal table in the Leeds City Art Gallery at Temple Newsam House, that would now be attributable to the Blakes on the stylistic ground of the marquetry. This table was supplied to the Duke of Buccleuch in 1841 and a similar table at Alnwick Castle in the collection of the Duke of Northumberland confirmed the Blake house style, when Clive Wainwright discovered a note in the Alnwick Castle archive referring it to "the Blakes, the great makers of Marquetrie in London, to crate.' A further letter at Alnwick written on February 10, 1865 links the work of Blake to the dealer John Webb, supplier of 105 in the present sale, Webb writes ‘causes of delay…through the decease of Henry Blake…being impossible to proceed…without good light, foggy weather increased the delay.’ In The Furniture History Society Newsletter of May 2005, Martin Levy helped to confirm present thinking, citing other tables and French Louis XV style writing desks in the same vein as the present lot, such as one at Goodwood House, Sussex, with a Blake label. Desks by Blake and or Baldock of similar form to the present lot are in the collection of the Duke of Buccleuch.

Listings for Blake in Kelly’s Directories:

1820s Robert Blake, cabinetmaker, 8 Stephen Street, Tottenham Court Road, London, subsequently listed as ‘cabinet inlayer’ and a ‘Buhl manufacturer.'

1840 R. Blake & Sons

1841 Blake, Geo. & Brothers, inlayers & c.

1844 George Blake & Co., cabinetmaker, 130 Mount Street, London, and still at Stephen Street.

1846-1850 George Blake, 53 Mount Street.

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.

A satinwood writing desk of similar form to the present lot, also stamped EHB but without the elaborate inlay of the present lot, was sold to the Duke of Buccleuch in 1841 and is still in their collection.

A desk by Baldock of the exact same form and with very minor variant to the floral marquetry, Property of Mrs. J. Hasson, Bindon House, Langforn Budville, Wellington, Somerset, sold, Christie's, London, July 9, 1998, lot 136.

Please see also the note to lot 123 in the present sale.