Outstanding Quality Late Regency Treen Table Fruit Press or Lemon Squeezer - English c.1820

An Outstanding Quality late Regency Treen Table Fruit Press or Lemon Squeezer, English, c.1820 Designed as a miniature version of a commercial fruit press, the present piece was designed for use on a smart table, allowing the owner of the house and their guests to squeeze fresh fruit juice as and when required. There is a central screw press mechanism, the fruit being positioned in a barrel-shaped receptacle and the juice squeezed through an applied bone spout. There are further bone mounts to the supporting columns and to the base of the piece, the mounts being beautifully turned and executed. The press is constructed from a number of different fruitwoods, many with highly figured burl, and this piece is a turner’s masterpiece. The screw mechanism on the press is finely executed but the supporting columns, which are both fluted and carved with the wooden equivalent of diamond-shaped cuts, are truly masterful. There is also beaded detailing used on the press, turned circles on the barrel, as on its life-sized equivalents, and finely turned bun feet. Like all the most desirable treen pieces, this example has acquired a fabulous colour and patination. This is an extremely sophisticated example of its kind, far outstripping most surviving examples in terms of decorative appeal, design and execution. A true collector’s piece.