A GEORGE III MAHOGANY SERPENTINE PEMBROKE TABLE

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Details

A GEORGE III MAHOGANY SERPENTINE PEMBROKE TABLE
Crossbanded overall with tulipwood and inlaid with boxwood and green- stained lines, the serpentine rectangular twin-flap top above a mahogany-lined frieze drawer with cockbeading and laurel-wreath handles, on fluted fan-headed and channelled cabriole legs with brass caps and leather castors, the reverse similarly decorated
27½ in. (69.8 cm.) high; 19¾ in. (50.2 cm.) wide, closed; 40½ in. (103 cm.) wide, open; 31 in. (78.5 cm.) deep

Provenance

The late Frederick Poke, Esq., sold Sotheby's London, 11 May 1979, lot 41.
Bought from Norman Adams.

Literature

R.W. Symonds, 'Tables of the 18th Century', Apollo, September 1939, p. 115, fig. VIII.
R.W. Symonds, Homes and Gardens, June 1941, p. 25
C. Claxton Stevens and S. Whittington, 18th Century English Furniture, The Norman Adams Collection, Woodbridge, rev. ed., 1985, pp. 320-1 ('... It is in exceptionally fine condition, the solid nut brown mahogany mellowed and deeply patinated...')

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

A. Hepplewhite & Co's Cabinet-Maker's and Upholsterer's Guide, 1788, pl. 62, illustrates this type of inlaid mahogany table with the comment 'Pembroke tables are the most useful of this species of furniture: they may be of various shapes' and Sheraton adds that the name comes 'from the name of the lady who first gave orders for one of them' (Cabinet Dictionary, 1803). Hepplewhite also provides a pattern for a bowed 'leaf' with rounded corners (op. cit., pl. 64). This table evolved from the mid-18th century 'breakfast table' which furnished bedroom apartments and its serpentined and elegantly tapering legs terminating in scroll feet in the Louis XV manner relate to those on a dressing-stool published by Hepplewhite, ibid., pl. 16.
A very similar Pembroke table was sold anonymously, in these Rooms, 21 May 1970, lot 101 and was illustrated in Christie's Review of the Season, 1969-70, p. 356.
FREDERICK POKE
Frederick Poke was one of several distinguished collectors of English furniture advised by the furniture historian R. W. Symonds and his collection formed the basis of several articles by Symonds, published in Connoisseur from 1939-1942 (C. Streeter & M. Barker, 'A Bibliography of Publications by Robert Wemyss Symonds', Furniture History, 1975, pp. 88-107).

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