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Lot Essay
The medallion inlay on the present pair of card tables reflects the antique style promoted in Giovanni Battista Piranesi's 1769 publication, Diverse maniere d'adornare i cammini. One print in particular, Conchiglie, features a number of shells which would have likely served as the inspiration for the 'Venus' shell motif on the present pair of tables (Piranesi: Incisioni, rami, legature, architetturae, ed. A. Bettagno, Vicenza, 1981, pl. 339). A similar design can featured on Thomas Chippendale's card-tables of the 1770s at Newby Hall, Yorkshire (C. Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, London, 1978, fig. 408), and in a 1788 pier-table sketch in the Estimate Sketch Books of Gillow of London and Lancaster (L. Boynton, Gillow Furniture Designs , Royston, 1995, fig. 13).
A related shell decoration featured on a George III mahogany demi-lune card table in the Dining Room of the Private Apartment of H.R.H. The Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon at Kensington Palace, sold Christie's, London, The Collection of H.R.H. Princess Margaret, 14 June 2006, lot 379 (£9,000 including premium).
A related shell decoration featured on a George III mahogany demi-lune card table in the Dining Room of the Private Apartment of H.R.H. The Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon at Kensington Palace, sold Christie's, London, The Collection of H.R.H. Princess Margaret, 14 June 2006, lot 379 (£9,000 including premium).