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Lot Essay
Designed in the antique manner, marble-slabbed side tables, which would have been entitled 'Roman tables' in early 18th century pattern books, were used as sideboard-tables for a stone banqueting hall or saloon. The ornament of the frame is intended to recall ancient poetry such as Ovid's Metamorphoses or Love of the Gods, and as such the spread eagle would recall its role in bearing away the youthful Ganymede to serve as Jupiter's cup-bearer at the banquet of the Gods.
The introduction of the marble-topped console-table with plinth-supported Roman eagle is generally credited to the artist/architect William Kent (d.1748), who was appointed Master Carpenter to George I's Board of Works in 1726. Fighting eagles, perched on a console table, featured in his illustrations for Alexander Pope's 1727 translation of Homer's The Odyssey, recounting the history of Rome's foundation after the Trojan Wars.
The earliest surviving illustration of such a table, accompanying a sconce or pier-glass featured on the 1739 printed bill-head of Francis Brodie (d.1782), cabinet-maker of Edinburgh (see F. Bamford, 'A Dictionary of Edinburgh Wrights and Furniture Makers', Furniture History, 1983, pl.24a).
Kent's colleague Henry Flitcroft (d.1769), Clerk of the Works to George II's palaces, is credited with the design of a pair of related tables from Kimpton Hoo, Hertfordshire, that sold in these Rooms, 27 January 1990, lot 112. A related example is in the Victoria and Albert Museum (W.21-1945), illustrated in D. FitzGerald, Georgian Furniture, London, 1969, fig.27. A table from the celebrated collection of C.D. Rotch (d.1962) was illustrated by furniture historian R.W. Symonds in his article 'English Eagle and Dolphin Console Tables', The Magazine Antiques, October 1930, p.296. This table, whose eagle similarly supports the frame on folded rather than outstretched wings and with rockwork and conch shell base, was sold, the property of a Lady, Christie's London, 19 November 1993, lot 157.
The introduction of the marble-topped console-table with plinth-supported Roman eagle is generally credited to the artist/architect William Kent (d.1748), who was appointed Master Carpenter to George I's Board of Works in 1726. Fighting eagles, perched on a console table, featured in his illustrations for Alexander Pope's 1727 translation of Homer's The Odyssey, recounting the history of Rome's foundation after the Trojan Wars.
The earliest surviving illustration of such a table, accompanying a sconce or pier-glass featured on the 1739 printed bill-head of Francis Brodie (d.1782), cabinet-maker of Edinburgh (see F. Bamford, 'A Dictionary of Edinburgh Wrights and Furniture Makers', Furniture History, 1983, pl.24a).
Kent's colleague Henry Flitcroft (d.1769), Clerk of the Works to George II's palaces, is credited with the design of a pair of related tables from Kimpton Hoo, Hertfordshire, that sold in these Rooms, 27 January 1990, lot 112. A related example is in the Victoria and Albert Museum (W.21-1945), illustrated in D. FitzGerald, Georgian Furniture, London, 1969, fig.27. A table from the celebrated collection of C.D. Rotch (d.1962) was illustrated by furniture historian R.W. Symonds in his article 'English Eagle and Dolphin Console Tables', The Magazine Antiques, October 1930, p.296. This table, whose eagle similarly supports the frame on folded rather than outstretched wings and with rockwork and conch shell base, was sold, the property of a Lady, Christie's London, 19 November 1993, lot 157.