Lot Essay
This table is likely to have been manufactured in or before 1821, when Robert James, the celebrated Bristol cabinet-maker, advertised himself as 'Manufacturer of the Beautiful Polyanthus Wood'. He claimed that these manufactures in 'Polyanthus and other British Woods' excelled 'any other yet offered, for beauty of Colours and variety to the imagination. Exhibiting on its highly polished surface, Woods, Landscapes, and in some instances Animals, Fish etc...' He received a Royal patent at the beginning of George IV's reign and sold some of his Polyanthus Wood Furniture to the King.
The style of this 'sarcophagus' chest relates to a Grecian work-table illustrated in R. Ackermann's The Repository of Arts, 1811 (pl. 28), while its hollow-sided 'altar' plinth and voluted truss feet also feature on a centre table bearing the label that James adopted in 1823 as 'Manufacturer of British Woods to his Majesty' (D. Jones, 'An Anthology of Regional Furniture', Regional Furniture Journal, 1993, fig. 56; and K. Walton, 'Eighteenth Century cabinet-making in Bristol', Furniture History, 1976, p. 63).
The style of this 'sarcophagus' chest relates to a Grecian work-table illustrated in R. Ackermann's The Repository of Arts, 1811 (pl. 28), while its hollow-sided 'altar' plinth and voluted truss feet also feature on a centre table bearing the label that James adopted in 1823 as 'Manufacturer of British Woods to his Majesty' (D. Jones, 'An Anthology of Regional Furniture', Regional Furniture Journal, 1993, fig. 56; and K. Walton, 'Eighteenth Century cabinet-making in Bristol', Furniture History, 1976, p. 63).