When the table for which we have to add glass to the top turns out to be one of the most valuable pieces of furniture in the world…
The table came for renovation from a private owner from Denmark. Apart from the fact that the owner’s father had brought it from France and it functioned in family stories as a special table, nothing was known about it. After starting the restoration work and dismantling the top, it turned out that the table leg consists of many moving elements, under which there are hidden further mechanisms. Buttons placed under the top open secret compartments. The table leg opened into a column signed: Invenit e Fecit Renotte 1830, which underpinned the further searches.
It turned out that the table was presented at an industrial exhibition in Belgium in 1835, in the “ebenisterie” section with the inscription “Une table á musique de M. Renotte”. The table was designed and made by Renotte himself and is a combination of two pieces of furniture in one. A freestanding coffee table and a folding column with five music stands for musicians. All the table elements fold and are a decorative part of the furniture. When folded, the stands are part of the leg, and behind there is a hidden mechanism that allows you to set the column at any height.
The crank that started the mechanism was hidden in secret drawers in the base of the leg, opened by buttons under the top. Height adjustment allowed musicians to play standing or sitting. A five-armed chandelier was screwed onto the thread at the top of the column, which illuminated the music stands.
After our conservation, the object was returned to its owner.
In 2024, it was sold at auction at the Dorotheum auction house.
