Side table
attributed to Gerrit Jensen (fl.1667 – London 1715)
Category
Furniture
Date
1672 - 1683
Materials
Oak and pine carcass, veneered with walnut, olivewood and various fruitwood marquetry, ivory and stained horn
Measurements
79.6 x 99.6 x 67.8 cm
Place of origin
London
Order this imageCollection
Ham House, Surrey (Accredited Museum)
NT 1139923
Summary
A table, or side table, possibly by Gerrit Jensen, circa 1675, in oak, pine and walnut, veneered with walnut, olivewood and floral marquetry in various fruitwoods, ivory and stained green horn. The top is decorated with a central medallions and side cartouches of floral marquetry on a ground of oysterwork. The large central medallion incorporating a vase of flowers issuing cornucopiae, flanked by birds. The frieze is fitted with a long drawer centred by a floral marquetry reserve, on twist turned legs with baluster-shaped lower sections terminating in bun feet, joined by an X stretcher centred by an oval with floral marquetry. Gerrit Jensen was supplier of veneered furniture to the Duke and Duchess of Lauderdale as per records of payments from May 1672 until October 1683. Two comparable marquetry tables at Ham are also thought to be his work (NT1140043 & NT 1139568). Gerrit Jensen most probably came from Holland and settled in London before 1667. He is known to have supplied fine marquetry furniture to the court and prestigious patrons from the 1680s. In 1670s floral marquetry was a novelty and Reinier Baarsen explains that this furniture at Ham would suggest that floral marquetry was the speciality with which Jensen conquered the London clientele a few years later. Most likely a Dutch-born cabinet maker, he would have brought the art of floral marquetry with him, introducing this technique in England such as Cornelius Gole, following Pierre Gole (c.1620-1685) in Paris and Leonardo van der Vinne (active c.1659-1713) in Florence.
Provenance
Acquired in 1948 by HM Government when Sir Lyonel, 4th Bt (1854 – 1952) and Sir Cecil Tollemache, 5th Bt (1886 – 1969) presented Ham House to the National Trust, and entrusted to the care of the Victoria & Albert Museum, until 1990, when returned to the care of the National Trust, and to which ownership was transferred in 2002.
Marks and inscriptions
'Repaired by Tiller' - typed label on underside -
Makers and roles
attributed to Gerrit Jensen (fl.1667 – London 1715), cabinet maker
References
Baarsen 2013: Reinier Baarsen, 'Seventeenth-Century European Cabinet-Making at Ham House' in Christopher Rowell (ed.), Ham House 400 Years of Collecting and Patronage, Yale, 2013, pp.194-203