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Lot Essay
The oak-slabbed 'Newborough' sideboard tables with their heraldic-enriched frames, are designed in the early 19th century antiquarian style; and, with their serpentined trusses after the 'Inigo Jones' fashion, recall 'Roman' table patterns designed by William Kent (d. 1748), Surveyor to George II's Board of Works.
The Grecian-style frames, beneath reed-gadrooned cornices, display the palm-flowered and coronet-ensigned arms of Thomas John Wynn, 2nd Baron Newborough (d. 1832), who succeeded in 1807 to the ancient family estate at Glynllifon. One table was commissioned at the time of his coming of age in 1823 and was invoiced by Gillow in June of that year as 'An oak table richly carved with your own arms, scroll supports, centre foliage…. £69' and were possibly inspired by an antique family table since his ancestor Sir Thomas Wynn had served in the 1730s as Equerry to George II.
The splendid armorials also reflect the influence of the antiquarian Philip Yorke's The Royal Tribes of Wales 1799; and demonstrate Newborough's pride in his descent from three of the fifteen tribes of Wales including the fourth and eighth noble tribes of North Wales and Powys as well as from Griffith ap Conan, King of North Wales. The commissioned at the same time from the Ludgate Street firm of Green, Ward, Green & Ward, who had recently supplied the celebrated 'Shield of Wellington'.
Following the aggrandisement of Glynllifon in the late 1830s for Spencer Bulkeley, 3rd Lord Newborough (d. 1888) by the Shrewsbury architect Edward Haycock (d. 1870), a second table was commissioned for the Banqueting Hall, where it stood with its companion flanking a door at one side of the room. This latter side table was invoiced in 1841 by Francis Owen, who from the mid 1830s had traded as Owen & King, cabinet-makers and upholsterers of No. 63 Berners Street, off Oxford Street. It was described as... 'a Masive [sic] oak table 7 feet by 3 feet wide with carved frieze supported by four carved truss legs on shaped plinth with rich carved moulding on ditto - your lordship's arms carved and carved scrolls under the frieze - for the Hall ... £76.10.0.'
The Grecian-style frames, beneath reed-gadrooned cornices, display the palm-flowered and coronet-ensigned arms of Thomas John Wynn, 2nd Baron Newborough (d. 1832), who succeeded in 1807 to the ancient family estate at Glynllifon. One table was commissioned at the time of his coming of age in 1823 and was invoiced by Gillow in June of that year as 'An oak table richly carved with your own arms, scroll supports, centre foliage…. £69' and were possibly inspired by an antique family table since his ancestor Sir Thomas Wynn had served in the 1730s as Equerry to George II.
The splendid armorials also reflect the influence of the antiquarian Philip Yorke's The Royal Tribes of Wales 1799; and demonstrate Newborough's pride in his descent from three of the fifteen tribes of Wales including the fourth and eighth noble tribes of North Wales and Powys as well as from Griffith ap Conan, King of North Wales. The commissioned at the same time from the Ludgate Street firm of Green, Ward, Green & Ward, who had recently supplied the celebrated 'Shield of Wellington'.
Following the aggrandisement of Glynllifon in the late 1830s for Spencer Bulkeley, 3rd Lord Newborough (d. 1888) by the Shrewsbury architect Edward Haycock (d. 1870), a second table was commissioned for the Banqueting Hall, where it stood with its companion flanking a door at one side of the room. This latter side table was invoiced in 1841 by Francis Owen, who from the mid 1830s had traded as Owen & King, cabinet-makers and upholsterers of No. 63 Berners Street, off Oxford Street. It was described as... 'a Masive [sic] oak table 7 feet by 3 feet wide with carved frieze supported by four carved truss legs on shaped plinth with rich carved moulding on ditto - your lordship's arms carved and carved scrolls under the frieze - for the Hall ... £76.10.0.'