Lot Essay
A virtually identical table (without the leather-lining to the tablet) formerly in the collection of the Late Wilfrid Evill may in fact be the pair to the present table. The Evill table, originally sold at Sotheby's, London, 12 July 1963, lot 93 was later sold at Christie's, London, 6 April 1995, lot 175 (£12,650). The London dealer Temple Williams owned a pair at the time that he provided a photograph of the Evill table to Margaret Jourdain for publication in E. Fastnedge and M. Jourdain, Regency Furniture, rev. ed., London, 1965, p.71, fig. 154. Williams also owned a pair subsequent to the Sotheby's 1963 sale although he is not the recorded purchaser.
While the black-figured rosewood top is conceived in the early 19th Century 'Egyptian' manner popularised by the connoisseur Thomas Hope (d. 1831), the heads correspond to those introduced by Thomas Chippendale Junior (d. 1822) in his Stourhead library-chairs designed in 1805. The distinctive hocked monopodi supports derive from the French-style table illustrated by Hope in his Household Furniture and Interior Decoration, 1807, pl. XV, nos. 4 and 5 (see F. Collard, Regency Furniture, Woodbridge, 1987, p. 217).
While the black-figured rosewood top is conceived in the early 19th Century 'Egyptian' manner popularised by the connoisseur Thomas Hope (d. 1831), the heads correspond to those introduced by Thomas Chippendale Junior (d. 1822) in his Stourhead library-chairs designed in 1805. The distinctive hocked monopodi supports derive from the French-style table illustrated by Hope in his Household Furniture and Interior Decoration, 1807, pl. XV, nos. 4 and 5 (see F. Collard, Regency Furniture, Woodbridge, 1987, p. 217).