A triangular card table, one of a pair, veneered in kingwood and rosewood with inlays of box and other light-coloured woods (some originally stained) with neo-classical motifs including an oval plaque on the top showing a woman sacrificing at a classical altar.

A triangular card table, one of a pair, veneered in kingwood and rosewood with inlays of box and other light-coloured woods (some originally stained) with neo-classical motifs including an oval plaque on the top showing a woman sacrificing at a classical altar.
The table is decorated on all three side. From its shape it might be thought that the pair were designed to fit into corners or to stand together to form a square when not in use but the main plaques are designed to be seen from the 90� angle of the table, so they must have been designed to stand independently, or to be stored as pier tables, projecting into the room in angular fashion.
The legs are square-sectioned and tapering. They are decorated on all four sides with marquetry of pendants of formal foliate and husks on a ground of ebony. The ebony shows a craquelure finish and it is possible that it is mastic rather than wood. The legs are fitted with square, gilt-brass foot mounts, that may originally have been fitted with castors, and with collars of formal leaf motifs at the top of the legs. The frieze panels (1 on each smaller side, 2 on the longer side) show panels of marquetry with a shallow dish of fruit supported on the back of birds (cranes?). These hold floral garlands in the beaks, hanging from ribbon bows in the corner of the panels, which have rosewood grounds. The table is designed with a fourth leg, in the centre of the long side, that can draw out to support the flap when open. Above the moveable centre leg is a panel with a a lilly plant on an ebony ground.
The top is outline with rosewood cross-banding, diagonally set. Within this is a cross-banding of tulipwood and a band of small-scale repeating ornament of anthemia on an ebony or mastic ground. The ground rosewood ground within these borders is set with the circular motif of the three women. Inside the table top is similarly banded and grounded with rosewood, the central roundel showing a seated woman playing with a cupid.

Purchased by the Museum in 1868, from Mr. Whitehead. One of a pair, with 633-1868.

Card-playing was regarded as a sophisticated and skilful activity in late 18th-century European society, but one that carried a risk when money was at stake. This is one of a pair (with 633-1868) of triangular card-tables that each unfold to reveal a square playing surface. They were deliberately designed to be small, light and portable, serving as decorative side tables when folded up, but easily moved into the centre of a room and unfolded for games. The inlaid designs on this table and its pair are similar to those on pieces of furniture produced by Giuseppe Maggiolini, the foremost cabinet-maker in late 18th-century Milan. Maggiolini and his workshop specialised in marquetry scenes inspired by antiquity, based on drawings by late 18th-century artists and designers such as Andrea Appiani, Giuseppe Levati. However, the card tables bear an even closer resemblance to a small number of works signed by the Milanese cabinet-maker Francesco Preda. The recurring frieze motif of a vase of flowers supported on the backs of two birds and flanked by floral garlands and strings of pearls, is particularly characteristic of Preda's work.

632-1868