Maple & Co Inlaid Rosewood Envelope Card Table

A fine quality late 19th century inlaid rosewood games , or card, table by Maple & Co. of London. Very well constructed in solid rosewood with attractive rosewood veneers onto a solid mahogany carcas. With a single drawer to the front and standing on elegant cabriole legs. Decorated throughout with crisply cast ormolu mounts. The top is decorated with profuse inlaid detailing of musical scenes in satinwood and boxwood. The top rotates and opens to reveal a baise lined playing surface. Cleaned and waxed in our workshops and now offered for sale in excellent overall original condition. The original baise is in-situ , it bears some staines and marks. Maple & Co was established by John Maple, a shopkeeper from Horley, Surrey, who later opened a furniture shop in Tottenham Court Road. However it was his son, John Blundell Maple , who made Maples & Co a success. With exceptional business skills, John B. Maple took over the company while still a young man. By the 1880s they were the largest furniture store in the world, exported their fine furniture to every continent. Maples manufactured their luxury furniture entirely in-house, at a huge modern complex. A timber importer and furniture exporter, they landed prestigious contracts furnishing fine houses, hotels, embassies and palaces in Europe; among them Tsar Nicholas’s Winter Palace and the Hofburg Imperial Palace in Vienna . With his own empire established, John Blundell Maple achieved further fame in politics and horseracing – some lines, such as the Atherstoke antique cabinet, having racing connections in the titles. Never compromising on quality, Maples produced a huge catalogue of fine furniture, covering every avenue of interior design. A Maples & Co sale today would cover everything from Chippendale Revival antique dining chairs , to Aesthetic style carved oak dressers, to Art Nouveau tulip carved antique dining tables – all from the same catalogue. The exclusivity and high quality of craftsmanship of Maples’ antique cabinets, dining suites and bedroom furniture made them highly popular with Britain’s social elite. Today, they appeal to anyone who appreciates fine craftsmanship.