A GEORGE II GILT-GESSO AND GILTWOOD SIDE TABLE

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Details

A GEORGE II GILT-GESSO AND GILTWOOD SIDE TABLE
The associated portor marble top above an egg-and-dart moulding and a sanded plain frieze with ribbon-and-rosette moulding beneath, on cabriole legs carved with acanthus, on scrolled acanthus feet, losses to three feet, refreshments to the gilding
49 in. (124.5 cm.) wide; 36 in. (91.5 cm.) high; 31½ in. (80 cm.) deep

Provenance

Possibly supplied to Thomas, 2nd Viscount Weymouth (1710-1751) for Longleat, Wiltshire and by descent at Longleat.

Literature

1740 Indenture (between Thomas Thynne, 2nd Visount Weymouth (1710-1751) and Richard Hoare and Christopher Arnold) possibly No. 54 Best Bed Chamber, 'a Fine Egyptian Marble Table with Gold Veins standing on a rich Carved & Gilt Frame' or No. 72 Ladys Dressing Room, 'a Fine Egyptian Marble Table on a Carved & Gilt Frame'.
1869 Inventory, either Gallery, 'A Carved and gilt pier table with verde antique slab'
or 'North Ante Room to Gallery 'A carved and gilt pier table A ditto with marble top'.
D. Burnett, Longleat, The Story of an English Country House, Dorset, 1988, rev. ed (black and white interior photograph).

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.

Sale room notice

The height on this lot should read 35½ inl (90 cm.) and not as stated in the catalogue; the other measurements are correct.

Lot Essay

The 'Roman' sideboard table with marble top and golden frame, has truss-scrolled legs carved with Roman foliage. Its design evolves from marble 'slab' topped pier tables such as those illustrated by William Jones in his The Gentleman or Builder's Companion, 1739 (pls. 29 and 31). This pier table is probably one of two which appear in the 1740 inventory of Longleat. The first is recorded in the Best Bed Chamber: 'a Fine Egyptian Marble Table with Gold Veins standing on a rich Carved & Gilt Frame' which sat beneath a mirror described thus: 'a Fine Pier Glas 2/9 by 5/2 a rich Carved Frame with an open pediment Inclosing a Basket of Flowers & Wheat Ears all richly gilt'. The second table appears in the Lady's Dressing Room: 'a Fine Egyptian Marble Table on a Carved & Gilt Frame' which was accompanied by 'a Fine Pier Glass Carved and Gilt Frame in an open Pidamt. a Basket of Flowers finely Carved'. These tables formed part of the rich furnishings introduced to Longleat by the 2nd Viscount Weymouth (1710-1751), probably after his marriage to Lady Louisa Carteret in 1733.

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