Combined work, writing, and reading table and music stand

ca. 1775–80

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 529

This table, with its ebony veneer and Japanese lacquer panel inset in the top, further enriched with delicate gilt-bronze mounts, embodies the taste for novelty and multi-purpose furniture in late eighteenth-century France. The top of this reading, writing and music stand is hinged and can be angled to provide a slope, and the drawer includes a writing surface. Novel pieces like this presented an opportunity for their owners to show their sophistication, by using the object to display the elegance with which they adjusted the mechanisms and their mastery of the different activities for which it was intended. The main market for such luxury furniture was among rich and fashionable women, who would have used such pieces in their salons or dressing rooms. This table may have been supplied by one of the well-known mid-eighteenth-century Paris marchands merciers (dealers in luxury goods), Simon-Philippe Poirier or Dominique Daguerre

Artwork Details

Overview

Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings

Provenance

Exhibition History

Title: Combined work, writing, and reading table and music stand
Maker: Martin Carlin (French, near Freiburg im Breisgau ca. 1730–1785 Paris)
Date: ca. 1775–80
Culture: French
Medium: Veneered on oak with ebony, tulipwood, and black and gold Japanese lacquer; mounts chased and gilded bronze
Dimensions: ht. closed, confirmed: 30 1/2 × 15 3/4 × 12 3/8 in. (77.5 × 40 × 31.4 cm)
ht. maximum extension: 43 5/8 in.
Classification: Woodwork-Furniture
Credit Line: Bequest of Mrs. Charles Wrightsman, 2019
Object Number: 2019.283.4
Curatorial Department: European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

More Artwork

By Martin Carlin

In the same gallery

From the same time and place

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Bookcase, Martin Carlin French, Tulipwood and satiné on oak; glass, and gilt-bronze mounts, French, Paris — Bookcase
Martin Carlin
ca. 1785

Jewel coffer on stand (petit coffre à bijoux), Martin Carlin French, Oak veneered with tulipwood, sycamore, holly, and ebonized holly; thirteen soft-paste porcelain plaques; gilt-bronze mounts; velvet (not original), French, Paris and Sèvres — Jewel coffer on stand (petit coffre à bijoux)
Multiple artists/makers
ca. 1775

Cabinet, Martin Carlin French, Oak veneered with tulipwood and amaranth, holly, and ebonized holly; gilt bronze, soft-paste porcelain, marble, mirror glass, silk, French, Paris and Sèvres — Cabinet
Multiple artists/makers
ca. 1775–80

Writing and dressing table, Martin Carlin French, Sycamore, mahogany, boxwood, and ebony on oak; gilt bronze; brass; marble; leather, steel, French, Paris — Writing and dressing table
Martin Carlin
ca. 1785

Candlestick and workbox (table à ouvrage en guéridon), Martin Carlin French, Oak, veneered with tulipwood, boxwood, and ebony; gilt-bronze; blue velvet, French — Candlestick and workbox (table à ouvrage en guéridon)
Martin Carlin
ca. 1785

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