DESIGNED BY THOMAS HOPPER, CIRCA 1846

The table is almost identical to one designed in the mid-1830s by the architect Thomas Hopper (1776-1856) for the Great Hall of George Hay Dawkins Pennant's (1764-1840) Neo-Norman castle at Penrhyn, Caernarvonshire, North Wales. It featured prominently in the watercolour of the Great Hall at Penrhyn published in 1846. Hopper was closely involved in the furnishing of the castle and it was noted in a letter to The Builder in 1845 that 'the furniture [is] thoroughly in keeping with the architecture' (J. Marsden, ''Far from elegant, yet exceedingly curious': Neo-Norman furnishings at Penrhyn Castle', Apollo, April 1993, p. 264. The present table is from nearby Mostyn Hall, remodelled in 1846-47 by the architect Ambrose Poynter (1796-1886) for Edward, 1st Baron Mostyn, probably following his elevation to the peerage in 1831. Poynter and Hopper, as contemporary architects and rivals would have been familiar with each other and this would almost certainly have been reinforced by the proximity of their Welsh projects, and further compounded upon the publication in 1846 of the series of watercolours of Penrhyn's interiors by G. Hawkins, which may have prompted this table's manufacture.