The UK government has placed an export bar on a table top once owned by Louis XIV of France in the hope of finding a British museum to buy the piece, which has been valued at £7.5m. The bar will expire in mid October, at which point the item is “at risk of leaving the UK unless a domestic buyer can be found to save it for the nation”, says a statement from the UK government’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).
“The table top was listed in the inventory of furniture belonging to Louis XIV and has been attributed to one the most prominent and inventive glassmakers in France in the second half of the 17th century, Bernard Perrot of Orléans,” adds the DCMS.
The table top is made of 111 panels of worked glass and pictorial panels fabricated using the lampwork and casting technique—as part of which glass is manipulated in its molten state. The pictorial panels depict a scene from the mythological story of the Judgement of Paris, as well as classical gods and goddesses, alongside scenes of hunting, flora and fauna. The glass panels are framed by a gilded metalwork structure.
Simon Spier, the curator of ceramics and glass (1600-1800) at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, says: “This table top is unique in many ways: it is firstly one of relatively few surviving pieces of furniture that can be securely linked to the court of Louis XIV; it is also unique as a piece of glass made in the 17th century in technique, scale and iconographic complexity. It is currently attributed to Bernard Perrot, the émigré glass maker who was born in Altare and settled in Nevers and then Orléans.”
Spier adds that the table top is of “exceptional significance” for scholars studying Perrot and other émigré glassmakers working in France in the 17th century. “The strength of the attribution to Perrot also lies in the fact that his work is characterised by experimentation, evidenced by a number of special privileges and patents granted to him between the 1660s and 1680s. Included amongst these were making a rich enamel on tiles and columns of copper and the forming of porcelaine de verre [opaque white glass] in two-part moulds. These techniques are present on this table top.”
The decision on the export licence application for the table top will be deferred until 18 October. “At the end of the first deferral period, owners will have a consideration period of 15 business days to consider any offer(s) to purchase the table top at the recommended price of £7.5m (plus VAT of £300,000 which can be reclaimed by an eligible institution),” says the DCMS statement.
The table top was sold at Christie’s in 1975 and listed and described as “the property of Sir Adrian Beecham, Bt., removed from Clopton House, Stratford-on-Avon”. It was later sold at Sotheby’s London in 1988. The identity of the current owner is undisclosed.