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Lot Essay
SEDDON, SONS AND SHACKELTON
The distinctive decoration on this table places it firmly within the small group of documented oeuvre of Seddon, Sons and Shackleton whose partnership lasted from 1790-1798.
The cabinet-making firm established by George Seddon in the early 1750s was a prolific one. An entry in the Gentleman's Magazine of 1768 notes a fire on the premises of Mr. Seddon, 'one of the most eminent cabinet-makers in London, which resulted in £20,000 in damages'; in 1783 another fire destroyed an enormous £100,000 in property. By 1786, a German novelist, Sophie von La Roche, noted in her travel journal that the firm employed over 400 apprentices including glass-grinders, bronze-casters, carvers, gilders, painters, drapers and upholsterers, all of whom worked at the Aldersgate Street premises. A study of the printed bill-heads for the firm reveal the times when sons Thomas and George officially joined the company. The celebrated commission of furniture ordered by D. Tupper for Hauteville House, Guernsey in 1790 reveals that by June of that year, Thomas Shackleton, who married the eldest daughter, was invited to join the firm. This partnership lasted until the father retired in 1798 and the sons assumed control of the business.
The extensive Hauteville commission, now dispersed, includes a satinwood card-table painted with the same border of peacock feathers on a cream ground (C. Gilbert, 'Seddon, Sons & Shackleton', Furniture History, 1997, p. 6, fig. 3) , while the eighteen shield-back chairs also incorporate delicate floral chains. Three of these chairs are now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London and are illustrated in M. Tomlin, Catalogue of Adam Period Furniture, 1981, p.133, cat. P/7.
The firm also supplied furniture to Richard Hall Clarke at Bridwell House for which some of the invoices still exist. The furniture includes a Pembroke table (and pair of card-tables en suite) with the same handles and floral chains that border the top which correspond to the leg decoration on this example. The suite remained at Bridwell until 1992 and was sold Sotheby's, London, 9 July 1993, lot 173. The last known account for the firm was for Lord Deerhurst and dates to 1799. This sizable commission included an entry for 'A Sattinwood Pembroke Table with Border richly japannd & highly varnished £9' which supports the firm's predilection for painted satinwood furniture.
Further undocumented pieces attributable to the firm which closely correspond to this table, most notably featuring the ribbon-tied ornament on the top, are a Pembroke table with canted flaps as illustrated in L. Synge, Mallett's Great English Furniture, London, 1991, p.151 and a pair of painted side tables which also features the peacock borders. The latter from the collection of A.C. de Pinna, Esq. is illustrated in H. Cescinsky, English Furniture of the Eighteenth Century, vol. III, p. 302, fig. 330 and was noted by Gilbert in his article as worthy of an attribution (ibid, fig. 21). In addition, one must note the suite of peacock-decorated furniture in the Drawing- Room at Buscot Park and supplied at the time that the house was built by Edward Loveden Townsend in the late 18th century (The Faringdon Collection, The National Trust Guidebook, 1990, p. 18).
SIR ERNEST SALTER WILLS
The table bears the label of Sir Ernest Salter Wills, 3rd Baronet of Hazelwood who as a young man became one of the last directors of the family tobacco business of W.D. and H. O. Wills, which was founded by his great grandfather, Henry Overton Wills, in 1786. The firm later joined other manufacturers to become the Imperial Tobacco Company to compete with the powerful tobacco firms in the United States which were then attempting to capture the British market. Wills was an avid sportsman and breeder of racehorses. He succeeded to the title in 1921 upon the death of his older brother. He owned estates in Berkshire and Scotland. He lived at Ramsbury Manor in Wiltshire for ten years before he acquired Littlecote House, together with much of its contents, in 1929.
The distinctive decoration on this table places it firmly within the small group of documented oeuvre of Seddon, Sons and Shackleton whose partnership lasted from 1790-1798.
The cabinet-making firm established by George Seddon in the early 1750s was a prolific one. An entry in the Gentleman's Magazine of 1768 notes a fire on the premises of Mr. Seddon, 'one of the most eminent cabinet-makers in London, which resulted in £20,000 in damages'; in 1783 another fire destroyed an enormous £100,000 in property. By 1786, a German novelist, Sophie von La Roche, noted in her travel journal that the firm employed over 400 apprentices including glass-grinders, bronze-casters, carvers, gilders, painters, drapers and upholsterers, all of whom worked at the Aldersgate Street premises. A study of the printed bill-heads for the firm reveal the times when sons Thomas and George officially joined the company. The celebrated commission of furniture ordered by D. Tupper for Hauteville House, Guernsey in 1790 reveals that by June of that year, Thomas Shackleton, who married the eldest daughter, was invited to join the firm. This partnership lasted until the father retired in 1798 and the sons assumed control of the business.
The extensive Hauteville commission, now dispersed, includes a satinwood card-table painted with the same border of peacock feathers on a cream ground (C. Gilbert, 'Seddon, Sons & Shackleton', Furniture History, 1997, p. 6, fig. 3) , while the eighteen shield-back chairs also incorporate delicate floral chains. Three of these chairs are now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London and are illustrated in M. Tomlin, Catalogue of Adam Period Furniture, 1981, p.133, cat. P/7.
The firm also supplied furniture to Richard Hall Clarke at Bridwell House for which some of the invoices still exist. The furniture includes a Pembroke table (and pair of card-tables en suite) with the same handles and floral chains that border the top which correspond to the leg decoration on this example. The suite remained at Bridwell until 1992 and was sold Sotheby's, London, 9 July 1993, lot 173. The last known account for the firm was for Lord Deerhurst and dates to 1799. This sizable commission included an entry for 'A Sattinwood Pembroke Table with Border richly japannd & highly varnished £9' which supports the firm's predilection for painted satinwood furniture.
Further undocumented pieces attributable to the firm which closely correspond to this table, most notably featuring the ribbon-tied ornament on the top, are a Pembroke table with canted flaps as illustrated in L. Synge, Mallett's Great English Furniture, London, 1991, p.151 and a pair of painted side tables which also features the peacock borders. The latter from the collection of A.C. de Pinna, Esq. is illustrated in H. Cescinsky, English Furniture of the Eighteenth Century, vol. III, p. 302, fig. 330 and was noted by Gilbert in his article as worthy of an attribution (ibid, fig. 21). In addition, one must note the suite of peacock-decorated furniture in the Drawing- Room at Buscot Park and supplied at the time that the house was built by Edward Loveden Townsend in the late 18th century (The Faringdon Collection, The National Trust Guidebook, 1990, p. 18).
SIR ERNEST SALTER WILLS
The table bears the label of Sir Ernest Salter Wills, 3rd Baronet of Hazelwood who as a young man became one of the last directors of the family tobacco business of W.D. and H. O. Wills, which was founded by his great grandfather, Henry Overton Wills, in 1786. The firm later joined other manufacturers to become the Imperial Tobacco Company to compete with the powerful tobacco firms in the United States which were then attempting to capture the British market. Wills was an avid sportsman and breeder of racehorses. He succeeded to the title in 1921 upon the death of his older brother. He owned estates in Berkshire and Scotland. He lived at Ramsbury Manor in Wiltshire for ten years before he acquired Littlecote House, together with much of its contents, in 1929.