A North African Polychrome-painted Octagonal Occasional Table, Late 19th / Early 20th Century

A highly decorative North African painted wood occasional table of octagonal form, richly decorated throughout in a vibrant palette of red, green, blue, yellow and gilt.

The octagonal top is centred by an elaborate geometric rosette, radiating into eight panels filled with stylised flowers and foliage, all set against a red ground and enclosed within a moulded border. The sides are similarly decorated with individual panels of scrolling foliage and stylised floral motifs, the whole raised on eight shaped supports with characteristic cusped Moorish arches.

The combination of geometric ornament, arabesques and highly stylised flowers reflects the rich decorative vocabulary of North African Islamic art, where complex repeating patterns and densely ornamented surfaces were employed across architecture, textiles, ceramics and furniture.

Tables of this type were produced in North Africa during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when European fascination with the Islamic world and the fashionable Moorish or Orientalist interior created an international market for richly decorated furniture and objects. The present example is particularly attractive for the extensive survival of its original polychrome decoration and the wonderfully warm, slightly worn surface acquired through age and use.

Painted and gilt wood.

H 52  x  W 47 x  D 47cm