POSSIBLY BY JOHN COBB

Details

A GEORGE III MAHOGANY SERVING-TABLE
Possibly by John Cobb
The rectangular top above a Vitruvian-scrolled frieze and egg-and-dart moulding, on square tapering legs carved with acanthus and headed by square foliage panels and pierced angle-brackets, on block feet, with remains of inscription '1...9', reduced in depth by 6 in. and in width by probably 20 in.
35½ in. (90 cm.) high; 52 in. (132 cm.) wide; 26½ in. (67 cm.) deep

Provenance

Probably supplied to John Scott, Esq., for Banks Fee House, Longborough, Gloucestershire, circa 1765, as a pair to the one sold in these Rooms, 6th July 2000, lot 137 (£223,750 inc. premium) which was labelled 'For Jn Scott Esq Banksfee House .... Stow ../Gloucestershire'
That table remained at Banks Fee and was sold with the house to E.T. Godman Esq, in the 19th Century. It was sold by the Godman family at Tayler & Fletcher house sale, 17-18 October 1979, lot 391
Its Provenance continued:
With Glaisher and Nash
Michael Brudenell-Bruce, 8th Marquess of Ailesbury, Avebury Manor, Marlborough, Wiltshire by whom sold with the house to
D. Nevill-Gliddon, Esq., Avebury Manor, Wiltshire, sold Christie's house sale, 21 October 1981 lot 82.
Anonymous sale, in these Rooms, 6 July 2000, lot 137 (£223,750 inc. premium).

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

The most likely time for this table to have left Banks Fee House was in 19th Century when the Scott family sold the house to the Godmans. The reduction of this table no doubt occured after its departure. The evidence of redundant screw-holes on the underside of the side frieze are holes for the original bracket screws. The distances between the now redundant holes and new fixings is 3 in. conclusively proving that this table was 6 in. deeper, making it exactly the same depth as the one sold last year. It is not possibly to be as precise about the size of alteration to the width, only that it is more than 16 in. and therefore likely to be 20 in. so that its proportion should be correct. This table and its pair are undoubtedly made by the same maker as a table of almost exactly the same desgin at Temple Newsam House, Leeds, that is attributed to John Cobb on the evidence of several payments by Sir George Strickland of Boynton Hall, Yorkshire, between 1754 and 1773, the largest payments being in 1767 and 1773 (C. Gilbert, Furniture at Temple Newsam House and Lotherton Hall, Leeds, 1978. II, no. 337,pp. 278-280).
The Banks Fee tables and the Temple Newsam table are of the same design except in specific details: the Temple Newsam table has a moulding between top and frieze; the Banks Fee tables have flowerhead paterae at each end of the Vitruvian scroll frieze. The most extraordinary connection is the carriage labels of the same type, inscribed in the same hand and attached in the same place on each table with six nails. However this table does not have a label.

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