Dressing table with tilting mirror, Talleres Reales de Madrid, c. 1820

Dressing table with tilting mirror, Royal Workshops of Madrid, c. 1820
Mercury gilt bronze, mahogany and marble top.
Thanks to Enric-Eduard Giménez for his help in cataloguing.
It presents slight faults and restorations.
Measurements: 76 x 134 x 74 cm (table); 82 x 117 x 17 cm (mirror).
Dressing table with two sections. The upper one is composed of a tilting oval mirror articulated by a pair of candlesticks with two adjustable arms in its lower third. As ornamentation they have plant motifs on the top, which is reintegrated and lacking restoration, as well as ivy border on the inner perimeter of the frame. The candlesticks combine a fluted truncated pyramidal shaft with scrolls, acanthus, lotus leaves, guilloche or lion heads and claws on the support as monopods.
The lower body has a marble top and two drawers on the sides, these with a pin in the lock that slides to fit into a lock, and opens with a spring mechanism under them, missing the one on the right side. This is supported by four legs on H-shaped braced feet, flanked by a pair of cups with handles.
The bronzes, especially the vases and candlesticks, are of special finesse, attributable to Thomire, reminiscent of those found in some of the pieces made by the French cabinetmaker Félix Rémond (1779 - 1860) for María Carolina de Borbón-Dos Sicilias, Duchess of Berry, in 1823. The lower body, with H-shaped footings and chamfer, is reminiscent of Jacob-Desmalter's Empire pieces, of great rigidity, while the bronzes can be dated to around 1820. These characteristics lead us to think of a Fernandina piece with French-made bronzes. The arrangement of the lower body is reminiscent of the Thomire table of the Palazzo Pitti, in malachite.
Another relationship is that of the dressing table pieces of Queen Isabel de Braganza (currently in the Gallery of the Royal Collections), especially the carving of the legs of the upper third, both armchairs and canapé, made by Mariano Pejón, who had the collaboration of the workers Pedro Salvador, Manuel Ximénez, Fernando Granda and Antonio Domínguez. The carved ornaments of the wood were entrusted to the carver Valentín Urbano, gilded and burnished by Ramón Lletguet, and the gilded bronzes were worked by Celestino Espinosa, as main craftsman, with the collaboration of Pedro Bellas, the chiseler Lesmes Navas, Regino Ruiz and N.Gálvez.