19th-Century Regency-Style Painted Wood Pedestal Table with Chinese Export Gilt Porcelain Top.
A charming and rare 19th-century bespoke miniature pedestal or occasional table, marrying a Chinese Export mirror-black (wu jin) glazed porcelain charger with a custom-crafted European Regency-style painted wood stand.
The circular, deep-sided ceramic basin is richly decorated in overglaze gold (jin cai) depicting a traditional Chinese mountainous landscape. The porcelain top is securely seated within a bespoke ebonized and hand-painted wooden stand of classic Regency/Empire neoclassical design. The lyre-form supports are adorned with trailing green vines and blossoms, terminating in finely painted gilt cornucopias overflowing with fruit and foliage. The scroll supports rest upon a concave-sided platform base accented with distressed gold-leaf border panels. A turned wooden stretcher joins the uprights, with a decorative scrolled bracket supporting the underside of the ceramic basin.
Compact in scale, this unusual cross-cultural piece was likely commissioned as a personal side table, kettle stand, or display pedestal (jardinière) to showcase a prized imported porcelain charger. The condition is good. Wear consistent with age and use. Minor losses and expected rubbing to the overglaze gilt decoration on the porcelain interior. The wooden base displays attractive, authentic age craquelure to the gilding, minor edge wear, and historical putty/filler bedding along the lower seam where the ceramic basin meets the wooden collar.
Dimensions: Height: 16.5 in (41.91 cm), Diameter: 12.5 in (31.75 cm)