Lot Essay
The table, with its cut corners and hermed legs, corresponds to a pattern in Messrs. A. Heppelwhite & Co.'s, The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Guide, London, 1st ed., 1788 fig.64.
A pair of closely related card-tables, but lacking flowered medallions, was sold in these Rooms, 6 October 1983, lot 44. The tea-table's flowered medallions also relate to the ornament of contemporary tea-caddies, such as features on an elliptical caddy in the Victoria and Albert Museum bearing the stamp 'Gillows of Lancaster' (inv. no. W101-1919; G. Walkling, Tea Caddies, London, 1988, fig. 47).
The reputed provenance of this table is the Grant family of Castle Grant, Morayshire, Scotland. The quality of its veneer, with antique table and medallion inlay, also relates to that of a mahogany wardrobe, with 'thirmed legs' and 'neatly wrought with oval pannels', that Messrs. Young, Trotter and Hamilton supplied in 1796 for Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh (M. Swain, 'Furniture for the French Princes at Holyroodhouse', Connoisseur, January 1978, p. 29, fig. 4). This well-known Edinburgh firm of cabinet-makers and upholsterers, may also have executed this table.
A pair of closely related card-tables, but lacking flowered medallions, was sold in these Rooms, 6 October 1983, lot 44. The tea-table's flowered medallions also relate to the ornament of contemporary tea-caddies, such as features on an elliptical caddy in the Victoria and Albert Museum bearing the stamp 'Gillows of Lancaster' (inv. no. W101-1919; G. Walkling, Tea Caddies, London, 1988, fig. 47).
The reputed provenance of this table is the Grant family of Castle Grant, Morayshire, Scotland. The quality of its veneer, with antique table and medallion inlay, also relates to that of a mahogany wardrobe, with 'thirmed legs' and 'neatly wrought with oval pannels', that Messrs. Young, Trotter and Hamilton supplied in 1796 for Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh (M. Swain, 'Furniture for the French Princes at Holyroodhouse', Connoisseur, January 1978, p. 29, fig. 4). This well-known Edinburgh firm of cabinet-makers and upholsterers, may also have executed this table.