A small table of ebony and boullework marquetry, of contre-partie form (with a ground of brass), with a design set into a brass ground, the marquetry set on a ground of oak. The top of the table opens as two flaps, the top set upon cabriole legs joined by and x-stretcher. The top is probably 1680-1700, on later legs, and contains one drawer with compartments for writing accessories.

A small table of ebony and boullework marquetry, of contre-partie form (on a ground of brass), with a design set into a brass ground, the marquetry set on a ground of oak. The top of the table opens as two flaps, the top set upon cabriole legs joined by and x-stretcher. The top is probably 1680-1700, on later legs and contains a single drawer, the carcase of oak, set with compartments for ink, sand etc. The body of the table is set with marquetry of scrolls surrounding central circular motifs on each panel, in ebony and pewter on a ground of brass. The later legs and stretcher are veneered in brass, with edging of ebony. but carry no other decoration, except for cast brass mounts of male masks on the knees of each leg and acanthus mounts at the foot, with small, brass castors.

The Bettine, Lady Abingdon Collection. Bequeathed by Mrs T. R. P. Hole

One of a large number of pieces of French furniture, ceramics, metalwork, books and other decorative arts, from the Empire period and earlier, acquired in Paris by Charles Stuart (from 1828 1st Lord Stuart de Rothesay) (1779--1845). The Empire furnishings were probably purchased during his first period as ambassador to Paris (1815--1824), the earlier furnishings during his second embassy (1828--30). The Empire furnishings may have been intended for a London house. He acquired 4 Carlton House Terrace, where improvements were carried out from 1827 to 1831, and he moved in in 1834. Older furnishings were more probably purchased for his country house, Highcliffe Castle, Hampshire (now Dorset), which was remodelled and enlarged in the most ambitious Gothic style from 1830 to 1834, with some work continuing throughout the 1830s. In 1841 the house in Carlton House Terrace was let, and the family moved their London residence to Whitehall Yard. It was possibly at that time -- or in 1845, the date of Lord Stuart de Rothesay's death -- that the Empire furnishings were moved to Highcliffe.
Lord Stuart de Rothesay's collections were inherited in 1867 by his younger daughter Louisa, Lady Waterford (1818--1891), who maintained Highcliffe Castle. She left the house and its collections to her distant cousin Major-General Edward Stuart Wortley (1857--1934). When his younger daughter Elizabeth ('Bettine') married Montagu Bertie, 8th Earl of Abingdon, in 1928, he bought the castle and its contents from his father-in-law. The Abingdons sold Highcliffe and most of its contents in 1949, but retained the present group of furniture and some other pieces. After her husband's death in 1963, Lady Abingdon lived for much of the time with her close friends Mr and Mrs Tahu Hole, to whom she bequeathed all her personal possessions on her death in 1978. Tahu Hole died in 1985, and a year later his widow Joyce approached the Museum and offered the collection as a bequest. She died in December 1986, and in accordance with her will the Museum chose those items that it wished to add to its collections. Other items from the collection were sold to benefit the Museum, and the proceeds added to the funds bequeathed.

Probably made in London in the 1830s, re-using the table top from a late 17th-century French table.

The top of this small boulle marquetry table was taken from a French table of the 1680s. It would originally have been supported on a faceted, tapering octagonal shaft above a tripod base. But about 1830 the top was reused, and turned into this fashionable piece of occasional furniture. This adaptation may have been carried out by the cabinet-maker James Nixon of Great Portland Street, London. The table was then acquired by Lord Stuart de Rothesay, British ambassador to France in 1815-1824 and 1828-1830, who collected boulle marquetry (named after André-Charles Boulle, 1642-1732, a celebrated furniture designer whose sumptuous marquetry was widely copied) and French Empire-style furniture. Stuart de Rothesay probably bought this piece to furnish his country house, Highcliffe Castle, in Dorset.

W.15:1, 2-1987