Pandora's box table auctions for $84,500

An early Victorian table depicting scenes from The Opening of Pandora's Box, has sold for £54,050 ($84,669) at Bonhams London, leading the auction house's June 12 sale of fine English furniture, sculpture and artwork.

Pandora's Box table
The Great Exhibition of 1851 showcased the finest 'works of industry', the Pandora's Box table among them

A brass label on the table's underside states that the piece is engraved with scenes taken from Elton's Hesiod.

Elton translated and published the works of the ancient Greek poet, including the tale of Pandora, in 1815.

The centre table was crafted by English furniture making firm RW Herring & Son.

The brass-inlaid table was exhibited at the Great Exhibition of 1851, held in London's Hyde Park. Attended by Charles Dickens, Lewis Carroll and Charlotte Bronte, the dazzling Exhibition attracted more than 6m visitors.

Bronte describes her experiences: "It was a wonderful place - vast, strange, new and impossible to describe.

"Its grandeur does not consist in one thing, but in the unique assemblage of all things… it seems as if only magic could have gathered this mass of wealth from all ends of the earth - as if none but supernatural hands could have arranged this with such a blaze and contrast of colours and marvellous powers of effect."

The sale also featured a George III-period bookcase, attributed to Seddon, Son and Shackleton, which sold for £32,450 ($50,791).

Here at Paul Fraser Collectibles we have several pieces of antique furniture in stock, including an exceptional Holland & Sons swivel top card table, complete with its original gilt candlesticks.

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