Pier Table attributed to Jean Pelletier

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Amongst the golden furniture now at Boughton are some items which furnished the apartments of Ralph Montagu at Whitehall Palace or Montagu House, London, such as the pier table. A triumphal palm-wreathed cartouche on its carved top displays his cypher, 'RM', ensigned with an Earl's coronet and accompanied by festive satyr heads, ribbons and flowered 'arabesque' acanthus foliage. It's Ionic columnar legs, fluted in the antique manner, support husk-festooned obelisks, while a flower basket graces it's serpentine stretchers. It's form derives from a 'silver table' pattern which was invented and published by the Huguenot Daniel Marot (d.1752). Marot, the son of a Parisien architect, served as William III's 'architect' and onramentalist, and dominated the court style around 1700. The table's craftsmanship reflects the skills of the Pelletier family, who supplied gilded furniture to the Montagu and Royal households in the 1690's.