A Kentish town's gift to a princess

25th September 2024

A writing and work table that was gifted to Queen Victoria by the people of Tunbridge Wells could make a five figure sum when it comes up at auction next week.

The elaborate inlaid table (lot 816) was gifted to the then Princess Victoria when she was only eight years old, to mark a series of visits that she and her mother, the Duchess of Kent, had made to the town. A public subscription raised 25 guineas to create one of the finest pieces of Tunbridge Ware recorded.

“One of the earliest and most refined makers of Tunbridge Ware was William Fenner, and it was he who was selected to make the work table for Princess Victoria,” explained Mark Yuan-Richards of Woolley and Wallis, where the piece is coming up for sale. “Tunbridge Ware uses specimens of wood in a patterned inlay design but the quality varies hugely. This particularly high quality piece uses a kingwood veneer and a multitude of other decorative woods from around the world.”

Queen Victoria had a particular love of Tunbridge Ware and, although she seldom visited the town after becoming monarch, when she did visit in 1849 she made sure to purchase several pieces.

The work table carries an inventory mark for 1866, made when Prince Albert carried out an inventory of Buckingham Palace. It isn’t known when it left the Royal Collection, but it was seen on the market at Bonhams in 1985 and was sold shortly after to American ophthalmologists, Ronald and Krista Reed, for $34,500.

“This is a really important object and one of the finest examples of Tunbridge Ware to come onto the market,” continued Yuan-Richards. “It was clearly treasured by Queen Victoria by dint of the fact that she kept it for upwards of four decades and had it at Buckingham Palace for at least the first 30 years of her reign.”

The table is one of several lots with Royal provenance being sold at Woolley and Wallis in Salisbury on 2nd and 3rd October. A toy gig that also belonged to Queen Victoria and was used by a young George VI features, as do a large pair of Regency bookcases that were commissioned by Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex that later ended up in the collection of Princess Margaret at Kensington Palace. The Tunbridge Ware work table carries a pre-sale estimate of £8,000-12,000.

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