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Lot Essay
This impressive table bears all the hallmarks of Robert Adam's designs. What is truly unique and spectacular about the table is its geometrically veneered blue-john top within a gilt-lacquered brass band. What eludes us to date is its original provenance. Clearly the table was supplied for a spectacular interior. Adam, the most fashionable architect of his time, worked with all the premier craftsmen of the day - Chippendale, Mayhew and Ince, France and Bradburn, and Fell and Turton, among them - resulting in some of England's grandest interiors of the 1760s and 1770s. It is possible that any of these makers could have executed this table.
There are many relevant comparisons of furniture commissioned under Adam's aegis. Notable among these is the suite commissioned by Sir Lawrence Dundas for his tapestry drawing room at Moor Park, Hertfordshire in 1771, which features the same overlapping disk-and-flowerhead pattern to the legs. Dundas's projects at Moor Park, Aske Hall in Yorkshire and his London home at 19 Arlington Street, are recognized as some of the most important commissions of their day. The Moor Park suite was delivered by Lawrence Fell and William Turton, and included sofas, armchairs, window stools and fire-screens, although not all of the pieces are accounted for in the cabinet-makers' invoice which suggests remaining pieces were supplied at a later date (C. Gilbert, Furniture at Temple Newsam House and Lotherton Hall, London, 1978, vol. I, no. 46, pp. 63-67). Furthermore, the seven extant invoices for Fell (who established a partnership with Turton in 1770) are only partial documentation based on the numerous payments recorded at Drummonds Bank between 1765 and 1775 (totalling £5,000) for work at Moor Park as well as Arlington Street. Moor Park was sold in 1784 and much of the furniture there either sold or moved to other houses. The suite was eventually sold by Dundas's descendent, the Marquess of Zetland at Christie's in 1934; examples are presently in public collections at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Temple Newsam and Victoria and Albert Museum. Another pair of giltwood tables from Arlington Street with specimen marble tops were supplied by France and Bradburn in 1769 which exhibit a fluted frieze centered by a fruited oval patera (A. Coleridge, 'Some Rococo Cabinet-Makers and Sir Lawrence Dundas', Apollo, September 1967, p. 215, fig. 3); while a further pair supplied to Dundas, are now at Kenwood - these are attributed to either France and Bradburn or Fell and Turton (E. Harris, The Genius of Robert Adam: His Interiors, New Haven, 2001, p. 186, fig. 275). A search of inventories at Arlington Street (1768, 1861), Aske Hall (1839, 1862) and the accounts of Dundas in the Zetland Archives (North Yorkshire County Council Record Office ) did not list a blue-john topped table. According to the Soane notation for a window seat intended for the tapestry room, the Fell and Turton suite was not actually designed by Adam despite his overall involvement with the Dundas homes.
The pair of eight-legged tables supplied for the drawing room at Syon House feature similar squared legs embellished with an overlapping design over turned feet (E. Harris, op. cit., pp. 75-76, figs. 111, 113-114). These display Lord Northumberland's 'two noble pieces of antique mosaic' imported from Rome. Adam's design for a further pair of tables still in the ante-room at Syon also compares with remarkably similar turned feet (C. Musgrave, Adam and Hepplewhite and other neo-classical Furniture, London, 1966, pl. 15; the tables illustrated in Harris, ibid, p. 70, pl. 104).
Much of the iconography used on this table features as part of Chippendale's 1771 commission at Harewood House. Specifically, the bead-and-flowerhead bordered frieze, beaded ovals which top the legs and the squared-to-shaped carved feet, relate to the Music Room table and sideboard table, while the flowerhead-filled guilloche band features on the accompanying cellaret. Also note the library table with all of these features (C. Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, New York, 1978, vol. II, pp. 192, 244, 260, figs. 350, 446, 474-475). Contructionally, ;the feet are turned sseparately as found on a table now in the Gallery of the State Floor at Harewood.
The magnificent blue-john veneered top with its guilloche border is apparently unique. While it is tempting to ascribe the top to Matthew Boulton, particularly given his prolific use of blue-john, furniture mounts were not a regular part of his output and given the large number of metal manufacturers in Birmingham, a definitive attribution is not possible. According to Sir Nicholas Goodison, Adam recognized Boulton as the one manufacturer in England capable of producing 'useful and ornamental' metal furniture (N. Goodison, Matthew Boulton: Ormolu, London, 2002, p. 50). Despite this, it is Boulton's contender, Diederich Nicolaus Anderson, who made the edging to the mosaic tables at Syon, not Boulton (E. Harris, pl. 78) which underscores the uncertainty of attribution even with an Adam commission. A scagliola top table with ormolu band embellished with apparently the same design was supplied for Osterley Park (P. Macquoid and R. Edwards, The Dictionary of English Furniture, London, 1927, vol. III, p. 270, fig. 50). Also note the Derby House marquetry commode features such a band (Harris, p. 292, fig. 437).
There are many relevant comparisons of furniture commissioned under Adam's aegis. Notable among these is the suite commissioned by Sir Lawrence Dundas for his tapestry drawing room at Moor Park, Hertfordshire in 1771, which features the same overlapping disk-and-flowerhead pattern to the legs. Dundas's projects at Moor Park, Aske Hall in Yorkshire and his London home at 19 Arlington Street, are recognized as some of the most important commissions of their day. The Moor Park suite was delivered by Lawrence Fell and William Turton, and included sofas, armchairs, window stools and fire-screens, although not all of the pieces are accounted for in the cabinet-makers' invoice which suggests remaining pieces were supplied at a later date (C. Gilbert, Furniture at Temple Newsam House and Lotherton Hall, London, 1978, vol. I, no. 46, pp. 63-67). Furthermore, the seven extant invoices for Fell (who established a partnership with Turton in 1770) are only partial documentation based on the numerous payments recorded at Drummonds Bank between 1765 and 1775 (totalling £5,000) for work at Moor Park as well as Arlington Street. Moor Park was sold in 1784 and much of the furniture there either sold or moved to other houses. The suite was eventually sold by Dundas's descendent, the Marquess of Zetland at Christie's in 1934; examples are presently in public collections at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Temple Newsam and Victoria and Albert Museum. Another pair of giltwood tables from Arlington Street with specimen marble tops were supplied by France and Bradburn in 1769 which exhibit a fluted frieze centered by a fruited oval patera (A. Coleridge, 'Some Rococo Cabinet-Makers and Sir Lawrence Dundas', Apollo, September 1967, p. 215, fig. 3); while a further pair supplied to Dundas, are now at Kenwood - these are attributed to either France and Bradburn or Fell and Turton (E. Harris, The Genius of Robert Adam: His Interiors, New Haven, 2001, p. 186, fig. 275). A search of inventories at Arlington Street (1768, 1861), Aske Hall (1839, 1862) and the accounts of Dundas in the Zetland Archives (North Yorkshire County Council Record Office ) did not list a blue-john topped table. According to the Soane notation for a window seat intended for the tapestry room, the Fell and Turton suite was not actually designed by Adam despite his overall involvement with the Dundas homes.
The pair of eight-legged tables supplied for the drawing room at Syon House feature similar squared legs embellished with an overlapping design over turned feet (E. Harris, op. cit., pp. 75-76, figs. 111, 113-114). These display Lord Northumberland's 'two noble pieces of antique mosaic' imported from Rome. Adam's design for a further pair of tables still in the ante-room at Syon also compares with remarkably similar turned feet (C. Musgrave, Adam and Hepplewhite and other neo-classical Furniture, London, 1966, pl. 15; the tables illustrated in Harris, ibid, p. 70, pl. 104).
Much of the iconography used on this table features as part of Chippendale's 1771 commission at Harewood House. Specifically, the bead-and-flowerhead bordered frieze, beaded ovals which top the legs and the squared-to-shaped carved feet, relate to the Music Room table and sideboard table, while the flowerhead-filled guilloche band features on the accompanying cellaret. Also note the library table with all of these features (C. Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, New York, 1978, vol. II, pp. 192, 244, 260, figs. 350, 446, 474-475). Contructionally, ;the feet are turned sseparately as found on a table now in the Gallery of the State Floor at Harewood.
The magnificent blue-john veneered top with its guilloche border is apparently unique. While it is tempting to ascribe the top to Matthew Boulton, particularly given his prolific use of blue-john, furniture mounts were not a regular part of his output and given the large number of metal manufacturers in Birmingham, a definitive attribution is not possible. According to Sir Nicholas Goodison, Adam recognized Boulton as the one manufacturer in England capable of producing 'useful and ornamental' metal furniture (N. Goodison, Matthew Boulton: Ormolu, London, 2002, p. 50). Despite this, it is Boulton's contender, Diederich Nicolaus Anderson, who made the edging to the mosaic tables at Syon, not Boulton (E. Harris, pl. 78) which underscores the uncertainty of attribution even with an Adam commission. A scagliola top table with ormolu band embellished with apparently the same design was supplied for Osterley Park (P. Macquoid and R. Edwards, The Dictionary of English Furniture, London, 1927, vol. III, p. 270, fig. 50). Also note the Derby House marquetry commode features such a band (Harris, p. 292, fig. 437).