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- Writing and reading table
- Martin Carlin (1730–1785)
- France
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- Date: 1783 - 1784
- Medium: Oak veneered with tulipwood, stained sycamore, box and ebony; gilt-bronze, soft-paste Sèvres porcelain plaques, Carrara marble, steel, watered silk and silvered metal
- Object size: 79 x 40.7 x 32.8 cm
- Inv: F327
- Location: Study
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- This table, characteristic of the 1780s in its ingenious mechanical fittings, combines a writing and reading table. Concealed within are two drawers, a candlestand at each side and a mechanism allowing the entire top to be raised and tilted to form a book rest. The charm of the piece, however, is in the decoration of the gilt-bronze mounts and the porcelain plaques, which give it an exquisite refinement. Everything is of the highest quality — the cabinetmaking, the gilt-bronze work and the painting on the Sèvres plaques (C506a-e), which depict overflowing baskets of flowers and colourful ribbons and have been attributed to the Sèvres painter, Edme-François Bouilliat père (1746–1802).
The cabinetmaker was Martin Carlin (1730–1785), who often worked to the designs of the dealer Dominique Daguerre (d. 1796). This was almost certainly one of those pieces, and would have been bought by a highly discerning and very wealthy client. The design idea seems to stem from the adjustable music stands with which Carlin can also be associated, and several versions of this kind of mechanical reading and writing table exist.
- This table, characteristic of the 1780s in its ingenious mechanical fittings, combines a writing and reading table. Concealed within are two drawers, a candlestand at each side and a mechanism allowing the entire top to be raised and tilted to form a book rest. The charm of the piece, however, is in the decoration of the gilt-bronze mounts and the porcelain plaques, which give it an exquisite refinement. Everything is of the highest quality — the cabinetmaking, the gilt-bronze work and the painting on the Sèvres plaques (C506a-e), which depict overflowing baskets of flowers and colourful ribbons and have been attributed to the Sèvres painter, Edme-François Bouilliat père (1746–1802).