λ A HARDWOOD MOTHER-OF-PEARL-INLAID LIBERTY & CO. OTTOMAN-REVIVAL ORIENTALIST CUPBOARD
London, England, late 19th - early 20th century

Of typical rectangular shape with protruding sides, resting on bracket feet, divided into two main levels, the bottom designed as two faceted octagonal occasional tables split in half, the leg panels enhanced with lobed arches, the wooden exterior inlaid with thin mother-of-pearl tesserae laid out as intricate arabesques and vegetal scrolls, and coloured and ebonised wood tesserae as fretwork bands, the lower unit with a frieze of three arches, the centre with three rectangular mirrors and two more mirrors to the sides of the upper unit, between them a red velvet-lined glass cabinet, framed by a coloured woods and mother-of-pearl-inlaid zig-zag triangular fretwork band, the sides with raised shelves, crenelated edges and further mother-of-pearl-inlaid vegetal and geometric decorative motifs, dark wood thin columns enhancing the sides of the lower unit, surmounted by lobed friezes and volutes with a crescent moon at the top, all made of ebonised wood tesserae creating an arabesque triumph against a mother-of-pearl ground, 208cm x 38cm x 145cm.

Liberty & Co. was a true institution of fashion, decor and style in late 19th-century London and England. Under the leadership of Leonard Francis Wyburd (12 June 1865 – 17 January 1958), a British painter, interior and furniture designer, appointed Head of Liberty's Furnishing and Decoration Studio from 1883 until 1903, the department store spearheaded a large production of Spanish Moorish and Arab-influenced furniture designs, which proved to be both fashionable and popular.

For further examples of Orientalist furniture commissioned by Liberty and Co., London, please see J. Sweetman, The Oriental Obsession: Islamic Inspiration in British And American Art And Architecture 1500-1920, p. 188, fig. 115.

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