A PAIR OF REGENCY BRASS-INLAID CALAMANDER GAMES TABLES ATTRIBUTED TO GEORGE OAKLEY , circa 1810

The cabinetmaker George Oakley (d.1840) was among the specialist manufacturers of Grecian-black calamander furniture, ormolu-enriched in the French fashion and with 'buhl' inlay. He ran one of the more successful Regency London firms with various associates producing sophisticated furniture for, among others, the Prince of Wales, later George IV (see The Dictionary of English Furniture-Makers, Leeds 1986, pp. 654-660). The firm was granted a royal warrant in 1799 after receiving a visit from Queen Charlotte and other members of the Royal family upon which '...her MAJESTY, the Duke and Duchess of YORK , and the PRINCESSES, &c., highly approved of the splendid variety which has justly attracted the notice of the fashionable world' (Morning Chronicle, May 1799).

The geometric brass inlay relates to a suite of furniture probably supplied by Oakley to Sir Arthur Grey Hazlerigg. Upon his succession as 11th Baronet in 1817, he refurbished his Leicestershire estate, Noseley Hall (see Noseley Hall; Sotheby's house sale, 28-29 September 1998, lots 146 and 147).