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Lot Essay
This pair of marble-topped pier tables, with their naturalistic knarled and vine-wrapped tree-trunk supports, rockwork friezes and foliate swags, are designed in the French 'picturesque' fashion promoted by the St Martin's Lane Academy and in particular William Hogarth's Analysis of Beauty of 1753. The table's design relates to a pattern published in Thomas Johnson's Collection of Designs, 1758 (pl. 19) which in turn is derived from M. Lock & H. Copland's Chinoiserie design in their New Book of Ornaments, 1752, pl. 2. A pair of related tree-trunk tables was sold anonymously, Christie's London , 3 July 1997, lot 90 (£221,500), having been originally supplied to Marcus Beresford, 1st Earl of Tyrone (b. 1694) for Curraghmore, Co. Waterford.
JIM JOEL
These tables formed part of the collection assembled by H.J.(Jim) Joel. Like many other collectors of the middle years of the 20th century, Joel was advised by R.W. Symonds, the collection bearing his distinctive imprint. Unlike some of his contemporaries, Jim Joel's collection encompassed a wide variety of genres that included French furniture, Oriental rugs, English, European and Oriental porcelain; but especially close to his heart was a passion for Sporting Art, reflecting his love of The Turf. His father and uncle were pioneering British diamond merchants and founded the Johannesburg Consolidated Investment Company Limited, known as Johnnies, of which Jim Joel was Chairman after his father Jack's death in 1940. His collection was sold in a monumental two-part Christie's house sale, at Childwick Bury, St. Albans on 15-17 May 1978 and the pictures sold at Christie's in London, 23 June 1978. The contents of his London flat at 15 Grosvenor Square were sold in these Rooms on 17 April 1980 and the final portion was sold from the Stud House, Childwick Bury, Hertfordshire, in these Rooms on 1 April 1993. Other lots in this anonymous collection acquired from the collections of Jim Joel are: 48, 92 & 99.
THE GILDING
An analysis of the gilding on the Georgian console table reveals that it has been gilded at least five times, including the present water-gilt scheme. Each of the earlier layers of decoration, including the original scheme, was oil gilt. The later table does not carry any traces of earlier layers and the water-gilt decoration is identical to the latest layer on the earlier table, suggesting that the later table was commissioned to match at the same time as the redecoration of the earlier table, probably in the first half of the 20th century.
JIM JOEL
These tables formed part of the collection assembled by H.J.(Jim) Joel. Like many other collectors of the middle years of the 20th century, Joel was advised by R.W. Symonds, the collection bearing his distinctive imprint. Unlike some of his contemporaries, Jim Joel's collection encompassed a wide variety of genres that included French furniture, Oriental rugs, English, European and Oriental porcelain; but especially close to his heart was a passion for Sporting Art, reflecting his love of The Turf. His father and uncle were pioneering British diamond merchants and founded the Johannesburg Consolidated Investment Company Limited, known as Johnnies, of which Jim Joel was Chairman after his father Jack's death in 1940. His collection was sold in a monumental two-part Christie's house sale, at Childwick Bury, St. Albans on 15-17 May 1978 and the pictures sold at Christie's in London, 23 June 1978. The contents of his London flat at 15 Grosvenor Square were sold in these Rooms on 17 April 1980 and the final portion was sold from the Stud House, Childwick Bury, Hertfordshire, in these Rooms on 1 April 1993. Other lots in this anonymous collection acquired from the collections of Jim Joel are: 48, 92 & 99.
THE GILDING
An analysis of the gilding on the Georgian console table reveals that it has been gilded at least five times, including the present water-gilt scheme. Each of the earlier layers of decoration, including the original scheme, was oil gilt. The later table does not carry any traces of earlier layers and the water-gilt decoration is identical to the latest layer on the earlier table, suggesting that the later table was commissioned to match at the same time as the redecoration of the earlier table, probably in the first half of the 20th century.