CIRCA 1815

Details

A GEORGE IV ROSEWOOD WRITING-TABLE
Circa 1815
The bow-ended rectangular top with blue baize-lined writing-surface and gadrooned edge above a plain frieze with two mahogany-lined drawers to one side, centred by a patera, with conforming panelled reverse, on lion-headed acanthus-carved scrolled legs with paw feet, losses to mouldings, repairs to tops of two legs
28¼ in. (72 cm.) high; 60 in. (152.5 cm.) wide; 29¾ in. (75.5 cm.) deep

Provenance

Probably supplied to Joshua Vanneck, 2nd Baron Huntingfield (d.1816) for Heveningham Hall, Suffolk, or possibly to his father-in-law Chaloner Arcedeckne for Glevering Hall, Suffolk, but in either case by descent to
The Estate of the late Joshua Vanneck, 4th Baron Huntingfield (d.1915) from whom bought by
William Vanneck, 5th Baron Huntingfield (d.1969) and by descent.

Literature

P. Macquoid and R. Edwards, The Dictionary of English Furniture, London, rev. ed., 1954, vol. III, p. 258, fig. 43.
C. Hussey, English Country Houses: Mid-Georgian, London, 1956, p. 174, fig. 350.
Margaret Jourdain, Regency Furniture, London, rev. ed., 1965, p. 77. fig. 180.
M. Hall, The English Country House, London, 1994, p. 135 (1925 photograph of the table in situ in the Library).

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.E. Henson's 1925 photograph of the James Wyatt's Library at Heveningham is one of the most famous interior photographs of that period and of startling clarity. In the centre of the room stands this superb Regency writing table, one of only two tables allowed to remain in the photographer's search for sparse elegance.
The table legs' Roman trusses and lion monopodia reflect the robust architecture promoted by C.H. Tatham's Etchings of Ancient Ornamental Architecture, 1800, and illustrated in George Smith's Collection of Designs for Household Furniture and Interior Decoration, 1808. Related sofa tables, also with the Grecian elliptic ends, were commissioned around 1811 from Richard and Robert Gillow of Lancaster and Oxford Road, London for the library at Tatton Park,Cheshire
(J. Hardy, 'Gillow Furnishings and the Tatton Park Library, 1811', Regional Furniture, vol. XII, 1998, pp. 96-97 and fig. 2).

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