Tulipwood Card Table
This card-table has a shaped folding twin-flap green baize-lined top and a frieze inlaid with three Sèvres-pattern plaques painted with flowers, mounted in cast and chased ormolu. The table is stamped 'G.I. Morant', so made by Morant, likely between 1830–1860. It is made using the Louis Philippe style (1830–1848), which often utilised exotic woods and was influenced by contemporary French tastes. This table was supplied with the remodelling Morant did for Raby Castle in the 1840s of the Octagon Room.
Kingwood-banded tulipwood card-table
This card-table is primarily tulipwood, with kingwood banding. As closely related species, Kingwood was often used as veneer or banding alongside Tulipwood, with small scale applications a consequence of the small size of heartwood and the kingwood’s relative scarcity. The table features a shaped folding green baize-lined top with a giltmetal border above a frieze inset, with five Sèvres-pattern porcelain plaques painted with flowers and birds, mounted overall in cast and chased ormolu. The table is stamped 'G.J. Morant 91 New Bond Street', which was used as a stamp from 1839, although the firm moved to this address in 1828. With its Louis Philippe style (1830-1848), it was probably made between 1839-1850.
Tulipwood Cabinet
The central panel of this cabinet features a Sèvres-style porcelain plaque, finely painted with a romantic 18th-century courtship scene. This cabinet was most likely made in the 19th century around 1850–1880, in Paris by ébénistes of this period, who frequently used Sèvres-pattern porcelain plaques (often not from the Sèvres factory itself but in the style), depicting Watteauesque pastoral scenes (lovers in landscapes, fêtes galantes). Gilt-bronze (ormolu) mounts in Rococo/Neoclassical motifs frame the plaque, with the top of the cabinet finished with a marble slab. Combinations of ormolu, tulipwood veneers, marble tops and porcelain plaques were highly fashionable around this time.
The provenance of this piece is unknown, but makers such as Henry Dasson, Zwiener, and François Linke are among many who used Sèvres-style porcelain plaques. Such additions to pieces were especially popular with wealthy patrons, such as those at Raby, as they blended fine art with furniture, turning practical items into showpieces.