A superb late 18th century painted satinwood and giltwood pier table, the D-shaped top with a satinwood ground painted around a central tablet with blue ribbon-tied floral garlands suspending blue and white painted cameos of classical busts within a palm leaf decorated purpleheart cross-banded border, above a carved and gilded frieze of foliate roundels centred by paterae; on turned fluted tapering legs headed by paterae and foliate and spiral fluted urns.

This table embodies all the grandeur of late 18th century neoclassical furniture, with the design of its carefully proportioned and richly carved base drawn from a classical vocabulary and surmounted by a beautiful satinwood top carefully painted with colourful flowers and swags.

The great proponent of painted furniture was George Brookshaw (fl. 1777–1786). Originally from Birmingham, Brookshaw set up a cabinet-making business in London in 1777. His workshop dealt almost exclusively in painted furniture, typically with closely observed floral decoration and figurative medallions adapted from engravings, chiefly after Angelica Kauffmann (1741–1807).

This pier table, clearly intended for a fashionable room of
great grandeur, may have been intended to stand in front of a large
pier glass that would have reflected the semi-elliptical top, giving
the illusion that of a round-topped table. The use of blue ribbons
within the painted decoration was associated with the circle of the
supporters of Queen Charlotte, the adored wife of George III.