Lot 367
367
A GEORGE III MAHOGANY SERVING-TABLE

Details
A GEORGE III MAHOGANY SERVING-TABLE
CIRCA 1770

Of serpentine form, with two short drawers above an arched foliate-carved kneehole centering a shell and flanked by a pair of drawers, on square tapering legs headed by blind fret-carved panels, bearing an old auction catalogue entry 'Property of the Right Hon. The Earls of Orford removed from Wolerton Park, Norwich'
29¾in.(76cm.) high, 45in. (114cm.) wide, 22in. (56cm.) deep
Provenance
The Earls of Orford, Wolterton Park, Norfolk
Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, 3 February 1968, lot 41

Lot Essay

The serpentine outline with arched ruffled apron centering a palmette corresponds to a pattern for a 'Commode Table' in Thomas Chippendale's The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director of 1763, pl.LXXII. Similar fretwork panels and herm feet appear on other Chippendale patterns such as pl.LVIII.

The table may have originally been commissioned by Horatio, 2nd Baron Walpole and Earl of Orford (re-created in 1806) shortly after his succession to Wolterton Hall, Norfolk in 1757. Baroness Walpole (d.1755) was a daughter of William Cavendish, 3rd Duke of Devonshire.