Table

Maker Unknown

Additional Title(s)

Table de Salon
Occasional Table

ClassificationsDECORATIVE ARTS

Date1750-1760

Mediumoak and fir or pine carcase veneered with marquetry of purplewood, rosewood, and tulipwood; gilt bronze mounts.

Dimensions29 × 27 1/2 × 15 1/2 in. (73.7 × 69.9 × 39.4 cm.)

DescriptionAn oblong occasional table with a top inlaid with marquetry of five flower sprays tied with a ribbon bow. The front, sides, and back show inlaid with floral branches. One central drawer inlaid with three panels and sliding top. Ormolu rim around shaped top. Cabriole legs with four ormolu shoulders, four ormolu feet.

Signed

InscribedStamped under rear apron: MIGEON and JME

Credit LineThe Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. Adele S. Browning Memorial Collection, gift of Mildred Browning Green and Honorable Lucius Peyton Green

Status

Not on view

Label TextThis table is stylistically close to the work of Pierre Migeon II, who operated as a furniture dealer (marchand ébéniste) from a workshop in the rue de Charenton in the faubourg Saint-Antoine. Migeon's furniture tended to be sophisticated in construction and decoration, and the marquetry on the Huntington table is typical of his style. However, its construction is much simpler than that of many tables associated with Migeon, especially in the arrangement of the sliding top and single drawer beneath. It is likely that this drawer was altered, as indicated by the plywood base and rosewood veneer. If the Huntington table was originally made by Migeon, possibly as a writing table (table à écrire), the wide drawer might once have contained a compartment for writing utensils and a velvet- or leather-covered writing surface. Or it may have been made as a dressing table, with containers for toiletries and a mirror. These interior fittings might have been damaged or removed and the inside transformed into a larger drawer with a simpler sliding mechanism for the table top.
It is possible that the stamp records Migeon's role as the retailer, rather than maker, of this piece. Like several other cabinetmakers, who worked as marchands ébénistes, he is known to have created an outlet for both his own work and that of neighboring cabinetmakers, many of whom typically ran small workshops without any access to clients. By the second half of the eighteenth century, these shops, which sold the work of several makers, became more common, a single showroom often representing a good part of the furniture-making community.

Object number78.20.66