A Louis XV/XVI Transitional Bois Citronnier, Sycamore and Marquetry Oval Table en Chiffonnière by Roger Lacroix, Circa 1770

This distinctive type of trellis marquetry on this table appeared in the early 1770s and was referred to as en mosaïque à fond blanc, consisting of green or blue-stained flowerheads or barbeaux (cornflowers) laid into a background grid of sycamore. Roger Vandercruse produced several tables of this form, some with the top and stretcher similarly veneered in cornflower trellis marquetry. These include one at Waddesdon Manor, Buckinghamshire (Geoffrey de Bellaigue, The James A. De Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor, Furniture and Gilt Bronzes, Fribourg 1974, Vol.II no.98, p.484-487; also illustrated in Clarisse Roinet, Roger Vandercruse dit La Croix, Paris 2000, fig. 39 p.95); another in the Metropolitan Museum, New York (Sheafer Bequest, 1974.356.190), and a third formerly in the Mr and Mrs Deane Johnson Collection, sold Sotheby Parke-Bernet, New York, 9 December 1972, lot 112. A version with a kidney-shaped stretcher and associated Sèvres plaque in the top was acquired by King George IV in 1829 and is still in the Royal Collection.