Robert Blake

Robert Blake (active 1826–39) was the first of the Blake family of London cabinetmakers. Blake is particularly known for his marquetry and for the ormolu-mounted commodes in tortoiseshell and ebony that he made in 1708–09, after a pair that André-Charles Boulle made for Louis XIV's Chamber at the Grand Trianon, on display in the New York Frick Collection. A pair of Blake commodes, completing the two in the Frick Collection, was sold at Sotheby's on October 15, 2015, for $658,000. Pieces in public collections include a piano in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, a writing desk in Goodwood House, a circular table in Alnwick Castle, and an octagonal table in the Leeds City Art Gallery at Temple Newsam House. His works often imitated the important pieces of 18th-century French furniture that francophile collectors, including the Prince of Wales (later George IV), William Beckford, Francis Seymour-Conway, 3rd Marquess of Hertford and George Watson-Taylor collected at the beginning of the 19th century. Blake often worked for Edward Holmes Baldock, who was a dealer in china, glass and, later, furniture to the Royal Family. He is also known to have been associated with the well-known Old Bond Street dealer John Webb.