George III Mahogany Metamorphic Library Steps / Table

An unusual and rare George III mahogany metamorphic set of library steps, converting to a rectangular side table. The hinged top has a brass button releasing a folding set of library steps inset with gilt tooled leather inserts to the 6 treads, the whole raised on square section, chamfered legs. This piece featured in Harvey’s Summer Exhibition 1987 “Casing the Classics” and can be seen in a period Library setting. The catalogue was carried by World of Interiors magazine in the June 1987 edition. Height: 28.3”, 72cm / Height Opened: 49”, 125cm / Width: 32.5”, 82.5cm / Overall Width Opened: 49”, 125cm / Depth: 19.5”, 49.5cm Francois Hervé was a Frenchman living and working in London during the last quarter of the 18th. Century. He appears to have been in partnership with another Frenchman, a Cabinet and Chair maker by the name of John Meschain. He supplied a set of chairs to Shelburne House in 1769. His premises at 32 John Street were taken over by Hervé in 1781. They appeared to have worked together during the 1770s as several sets of folding library steps inscribed with their names either on wooden or brass plaques exist. Hervé worked for a number of fashionable patrons. These included the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Bedford, Earl Spencer and the Duke of Devonshire. Indeed hewhom he supplied several suites of seating furniture at Chatsworth. Literature: Pictorial Dictionary of Marked London Furniture 1700 – 1840, Christopher Gilbert, Furniture History Society, 1996, Pages 34 & 40, Illustrations: Plates 185-188, 493/4 and 628-632. The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterers Drawing-Book, Thomas Sheraton, 1793 plate 185, and Third Edition 1802, Appendix, pp 9-11, plate 9 and pp 42/43 plate 22. “Casing the Classics” David Harvey, Exhibition Catalogue, Summer 1987 – The World of Interiors.