CIRCA 1720

Many features of the table can be found on gilt-gesso furniture attributed to the Royal cabinet-maker and upholsterer, James Moore (d. 1726). The foliate-enriched concave frieze and Indian mask with feathered headdress appear on a marriage chest formerly at Stowe, Buckinghamshire, which bears the arms of Richard Temple, Baron Cobham (T. Murdoch, 'The king's cabinet-maker: the giltwood furniture of James Moore the Elder', The Burlington Magazine, June 2003, p. 410, fig. 8). A pair of tables at Chatworth whose serpentine legs are headed by similar masks incorporate the cypher of 'WH' for William Cavendish, Marquess of Hartington and was probably supplied by Moore in association with John Gumley before 1707 when William was made a Duke (op. cit., p. 412, fig. 13). Another with entwined 'C' cypher, thought to be for James Brydges, Marquess of Carnarvon and Duke of Chandos (1673-1744), is now at the Treasurer's House, York (ibid, fig. 22). The pearled legs with acanthus-wrapped volute feet feature on a set of 'state apartment' armchairs supplied to Simon Harcourt, 1st Viscount Harcourt (d. 1727) for Harcourt House, London, one of which was sold by Christie's, London, 6 July 2000, lot 20. The chairs are likely to have been among the items invoiced by James Moore in l724 (The Dictionary of English Furniture Makers 1660-1840, Leeds, 1986, p. 619).

Similar gilt-gesso tables carved with Indian masks include one from the collection of Lord Plender (R.W. Symonds, Masterpieces of English Furniture and Clocks, 1986, p.72), and another with female masks in the collection of S. Jon Gerstenfeld and illustrated in E. Lennox-Boyd, ed., Masterpieces of English Furniture: The Gerstenfeld Collection, London, 1998, p. 74, fig. 54.