Lot Essay
Originally supplied as a 'wash-hand stand', fitted with a circular void for a wash-basin, and accompanied by a ewer, soap-boxes, carafe and tumblers, this table is now fitted with a marble top. It was supplied for the most westerly of the new Private Apartments at Windsor Castle designed under the direction of the architect Sir Jeffry Wyatville. It is recorded toward the end of cabinet-makers Morel and Seddon's commission, which ended with the death of George IV in 1830: their estimate is dated 1 February 1829. This table was in Room 254, whose furnishings were veneered in maple and inlaid with amaranth (or purplewood) while the adjacent rooms' (256 & 259) furnishings were veneered in maple and mahogany or simple mahogany. Interestingly, the mouldings attached to the edges of this table are inscribed identically to an en suite dressing-table at Windsor, perhaps indicating that in the course of rapid assembly of both pieces, some mouldings were transposed (Roberts, op. cit., p. 384 & fig. 462). Room 254 (the principal bedroom of this apartment) was hung with remade yellow silk curtains and the giltwood bed and its silk hangings re-used from furnishings originally supplied for Brighton Pavilion or Carlton House. Another wash-stand answering this description was supplied for Room 256, listed under Morel & Seddon's Account no. 1300 (ibid., pp. 378, 382 & 384). The inscriptions, inventory brand and inscribed inventory labels bear witness to the movement of this table within Windsor: while the table was originally supplied for Room 254, before 1866 it was moved to Room 233, another suite in Wyatville's refurbished Private Apartments. There is no Room 234 recorded at Windsor. A wash-stand, possibly this table, is illustrated in a photograph of c. 1880 of Room 251 (ibid., p. 372, fig. 458). A related satinwood and mahogany dressing-table, supplied for Room 210 in July 1828 was sold anonymously, Christie's, London, 7 July 1988, lot 108 (£16,000). It was repurchased by the Royal Collection and is now at Windsor (ibid., p. 195, no. 456 & fig. 230).