BY CHARLES TOPINO, CIRCA 1780, THE PORCELAIN ADDED BY EDWARD HOLDMES BALDOCK CIRCA 1829, RETAILED BY BALDOCK

This porcelain-mounted table appears in the list of purchases made by George Byng between the years 1816-1843, who acquired the table from a Christie's sale in 1829. The list mentions many porcelain mounted objects acquired from Edward Holmes Baldock (d. 1846), as well as another porcelain-mounted table-en-chiffoniere by Carlin, demonstrating his fashionable taste for porcelain mounted pieces.
Appointed 'Purveyor of China, Earthenware and Glass to William IV', Baldock was responsible for the formation of many of the greatest 19th century English collections of French furniture, including those of the Dukes of Buccleuch and Northumberland, the Earl of Lonsdale and William Beckford (G. de Bellaigue, 'Edward Holmes Baldock - Part 1', The Connoisseur, August, 1975, p. 292). Acting both as a manufacturer and retailer, Baldock established his Hanway Street business trading in Sèvres in about 1806. Baldock's name appears as a buyer in many of the more spectacular public auctions of the 19th century, and he specialised in selling not only the chefs-d'oeuvres of the Ancien Régime, but also in embellishing plainer examples of 18th century porcelain and ébénisterie and commissioning ormolu mounts in the Louis XV style to mount existing 18th century Sèvres and Oriental porcelain.

Byng's relationship with Baldock had begun at least by 1829, when his name is first mentioned in the acquisition lists - and the latter continued to supply him up until 1846, both with Sèvres porcelain and porcelain-mounted furniture. Baldock's influence - and much of the furniture he supplied to Byng - can clearly be seen in the interiors of the Blue Drawing Room, painted by Jane Paris circa 1845.

The current piece probably altered by him, would originally not have had any porcelain, as it would have been highly unusual for Topino's work.

The Porcelain:
The Sevres style decoration on the central dish, likely dating to the late 1820s, can be attributed to the renowned workshop of the Thomas Martin Randall whilst at Madley in Shropshire from 1826 until 1840. Indeed as John Randall, Thomas Martin Randall’s nephew, noted of his uncles time in Madley

‘for a few years Mr. Randall only decorated the French ware’ and ‘did very much for Mortlock, Jarman and Baldock - re-decorating it (old Sevres) in the most elaborate and costly manner’. Turner, Madeley Porcelain, The Connoisseur 1908, pp.153-60 and pp.248-54.



Whilst it is more challenging to attribute specifically the different elements of the decoration to members of the workshop, it is quite likely the application of ground colour and gilding may have been executed by Enos Raby with birds by either Thomas Martin Randall or his nephew Robert Bix Grey.