Have you ever seen a more unique and orante billiard table?
This black walnut billiard table by Orne & Sons Ltd is a masterpiece that was comissioned for Queen Victoria’s Jubilee Exhibition in Manchester in 1887.
Every surface is beautifully carved with references to the industrial growth and cultural developments encompassed by the fifty years of her reign, which coincided with the British Empire’s ‘Golden Age’.
The cushion friezes are decorated with ribbons of quotations from Shakespeare, Tennyson, Scott and Byron; themselves entwined with over fifty species of wild flowers and native British birds. Beneath the friezes are two long and six short panels depicting numerous countries through allegory, flora, fauna and industry.
Between the panels above each leg are portrait figures including: William of Normandy, Henry I, Henry II, Henry III, Edward I, Edward II, Edward II, Edward IV, Elizabeth of York, James I and Charles I.
The black walnut matching cue cupboard en suite is an imposing cupboard that resembles a door within a frame, surmounted by a broken pediment enclosing a lion. The door is carved with seven panels; the upper four coats or arms show Victoria during the most important stages in her reign. The central horizontal section has a profile of Victoria and Albert beside Windsor Castle and the lower section depicts the royal residences of Holyrood and Caernavon. The second section aklso features slides which expose a game with stars and coloured counters, which can be rotated to form a scoreboard. The ormolu door furniture comprises a handplate and two push plates intricately worked with arabesques and lion masks.
The set is at Harrod’s for £1 million.
