A matched pair of center tables mounted with Kraak, Arita and Kangxi porcelain.. Probably German. Circa 1720.

A matched pair of center tables mounted with Kraak, Arita and Kangxi porcelain.. Probably German. Circa 1720.   

Of blue and white porcelain and black lacquered wood. Each surmounted by a circular dish of Chinese Kraak porcelain resting on a conforming lacquered disk, above a flared vase of Japanese Arita porcelain, the shaped feet mounted to each side with Kangxi porcelain saucers, the stem terminating in a shaped finial. Height : 81.00 cm. Diameter : 52.00 cm. Price on application

These centre tables, with their Chinese and Japanese porcelain and European lacquer work, represent an intriguing combination of objects from the oriental export trade and the European chinoiserie tradition.

It is likely that the present piece was made by a German lacquer worker. Craftsmen such as Gerard Dagly (1650-1728), who was the master Japanner to the court of Friedrich III in Berlin, produced furniture for the Porzellankabinette of the great houses of Germany. The most celebrated of these interiors was at Schloss Charlottenburg in Berlin, Friedrich's great monument to baroque taste. An archive photograph from around 1930 depicting one of the rooms at Charlottenburg illustrates almost identical tables but lacking their tops (fig 1). Given the unusual nature of the design of these pieces it seems likely that the present pair formed part of a larger group made for Charlottenburg and subsequently dispersed.

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