Table
ca. 1885 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
The leather top on this table suggests that it was designed as a writing table. It is an example of the Aesthetic style in furniture, which used designs and decoration inspired by Japanese sources. The sunflowers along the back and the birds underneath the top are typical of the style, as is the geometic frame around the flowers. This table is very similar to two in American museums that carry the label of the Charles Parker Company, one in the Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C., and the other in the Brooklyn Museum, New York. The firm specialised in metal furniture and all three tables include the same details of twisted, curved or square section legs and rails.
Object details
| Category | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | Brass, leather |
| Brief description | Brass table, ca. 1885, United States, made by The Charles Parker Company |
| Physical description | Cast brass table, back has a design of three flower motifs, sides are pierced with a design of birds on branches. The table has a lower rectangular shelf and a rectangular replacement leather top |
| Dimensions |
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| Historical context | A very similar table is illustrated in A Brass Menagerie: Metalwork of the Aesthetic Movement by Anna Tobin D'Ambrosio, Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute,Utica, New York, 2005. |
| Summary | The leather top on this table suggests that it was designed as a writing table. It is an example of the Aesthetic style in furniture, which used designs and decoration inspired by Japanese sources. The sunflowers along the back and the birds underneath the top are typical of the style, as is the geometic frame around the flowers. This table is very similar to two in American museums that carry the label of the Charles Parker Company, one in the Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C., and the other in the Brooklyn Museum, New York. The firm specialised in metal furniture and all three tables include the same details of twisted, curved or square section legs and rails. |
| Bibliographic reference | 'Recent acquisitions of furniture and woodwork at the Victoria and Albert Museum'. Burlington Magazine June 1993, vol. CXXXV, no. 1083, pp. 443-448. This item and its pair (W.34-1990) illustrated as item XIII. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | W.7-1988 |
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| Record created | December 20, 2005 |
| Record URL |
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