The Unfolding of an Exquisite Mechanical Table
There's more to this 18th-century table than meets the eye
Mechanical Reading, Writing, and Toilette Table (detail), about 1760, Jean-François Oeben. White oak veneered with bloodwood, kingwood, amaranth, padauk, barberry, holly, boxwood, sycamore, tulipwood, hornbeam, ebony, cedar; drawer of juniper; gilt-bronze mounts; brass and iron mechanism and lock; silk. Getty Museum
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This mechanical table, made in about 1760 in Paris, is remarkable for its elegance in shape and design.
Created by Jean-François Oeben, cabinetmaker to King Louis XV, it is one of curator Miriam Schefzyk’s favorite objects in the Getty collection. Its elegant five-sided legs and intricate floral marquetry conceal a host of ingenious features that remain hidden when the table is closed.
In the third season of Getty’s Close Looking video series, Getty curators explore the details of artworks they cherish. In this episode, Schefzyk reveals not only the table’s originally vibrant colors but also how a single key activates a sophisticated mechanism that unfolds the table's hidden interior, revealing writing and reading surfaces, concealed compartments, and a secret drawer.
Learn more in the video below!
Get an insider’s view of more works of art in Getty’s Close Looking series, in which art experts and enthusiasts around Getty share some of their favorite works of art.
