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Work table
unknown - Enlarge image
Work table
- Place of origin:
Paris, France (probably, made)
London, England (possibly, altered) - Date:
ca. 1785-1795 (made)
ca. 1870-1880 (altered) - Artist/Maker:
unknown (production)
- Materials and Techniques:
Mahogany, set with plaques of porcelain and with gilt-bronze mounts
- Credit Line:
Bequeathed by John Jones
- Museum number:
1041-1882
- Gallery location:
In store
John Jones, who bequeathed his enormous collection of French decorative arts to the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1882, was particularly fond of small, highly decorative pieces of furniture like this. They had been the height of fashion in Paris in the 1780s. He was drawn to complex decoration and, in particular, to pieces set with porcelain plaques. In this he was very much following the taste of rich collectors in the 1860s and 1870s, when he was buying so keenly in London. Not surprisingly, there grew up a lucrative trade in 'improving' pieces for the market and Jones was not alone in being taken in by these alterations. This little work table or tricoteuse (from the French verb tricoter, to knit) almost certainly started its life in the 1780s or 1790s as a much plainer piece, though always of high quality. The simple mahogany pieces of that date had no market in the 19th century, so many of them, like this piece, were embellished with extra gilt-bronze mounts and with porcelain plaques.
