Research
Of black lacquer, green and russet “Nashjii” with gilded decoration. The octagonal tray top painted with floral motifs to the inner and outer edge, above a cylindrical body with floral decoration arranged within three shaped arcaded panels bordered by green and russet Nashjii decoration, two of the panels with rabbits, and containing a single of door. The whole raised on three shaped scrolled legs. Hinges are old replacements, brass trapezoid handle possibly a very old replacement. Presently in unrestored state.

As pointed out by Dr. Monika Kopplin, the leading scholar in seventeenth and eighteenth century European and Oriental lacquer, the present table is “a very interesting and extremely rare” example of a drum-form lacquer tea table, and was “very probably [made in] Berlin.” Dr. Kopplin comments that “the quality is amazing, not only with regard to how precisely the motif of the autumn grasses is depicted, but also the decorative effect of differently-shaded gold.”¹ 

Only a small group of seven other examples of this type of table is known, comprising a drum-shaped table (figure 1) in black lacquer and gilded decoration, today in the collection of the Badisches Landsmuseum, Karlrushe (but which formerly stood in the state apartments of the Residenz at Ratstatt, Baden-Württemberg), a table formerly in the Carlton Hobbs collection, and  four drum-shaped lacquer tea tables at Schloss Charlottenburg. One of the latter is found in the Porcelain Cabinet and is decorated in red lacquer with gold landscapes, while another, of octagonal shape, stands in the Audience Chamber and has panels of carved and gilded relief as well as decorations in gilt on red lacquer. The third Schloss Charlottenburg example, also in black and gilt, is firmly attributed to Gerard Dagly (1650–1728), Germany’s most important lacquerist and Kunstkammer Meister to the court of Berlin. An additional table, discussed and illustrated by Walter Holzhausen in his book Lackkunst in Europa (Braunschweig, 1958), is believed to have been lost in World War II. 

Footnotes:
1. Kopplin, Dr. Monica. Email to Carlton Hobbs LLC. 24 October 2022.

Full research report available on request.