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Lot Essay
This neo-classical mahogany sideboard table with its aesthetic form and ornamentation typical of the mid-1770s was almost certainly supplied to Henry Bathurst, 2nd Earl of Bathurst (d. 1794) (Lord Chancellor from 1754) either for Apsley House, London, or Cirencester House, Gloucestershire. The fashionable architect-designer, Robert Adam (d. 1792), was engaged by Lord Bathurst to design a new red-brick mansion, a commission that included the interiors, and lasted from 1771-81. The date of Apsley House coincided with Adam’s most prolific phase, and undoubtedly corresponded with Bathurst’s succession to the earldom of Bathurst in 1775. Designed in the fashionable Etruscan style, Adam referred to Lord Bathurst and the decoration of Apsley House in the Preface to his Works of Architecture (vol. II, 1773), ‘Many persons of rank and fortune having been struck and pleased with the taste, several apartments of the same kind were immediately designed, and having been executed under our direction at the house of Earl Bathurst, and that of the Countess Dowager of Home in Town, and at Mr. Child’s, at Osterley Park, in the County of Middlesex’ (ibid.). Lord Bathurst’s accounts at Drummonds Bank show substantial payments to the architect including on 16 October 1771, £1000, and on 28 May 1772, another £1000 with further payments until 25 January 1780. Adam was also designing furniture for the mansion; there are twenty-six Adam furniture designs of circa 1778-79 for Apsley House, now in the Soane Museum, London (SM Adam volume 49/44). However, the present table was possibly inspired by Adam’s design for a ‘Roman’ sideboard table for Kenwood, illustrated in The Works of Architecture (vol. I, pl. VIII).
MAYHEW & INCE
The Golden Square cabinet-making partnership of John Mayhew (d. 1811) and William Ince (d. 1804) were possibly recommended to Lord Bathurst by Robert Adam. The cabinet-makers undoubtedly had a closer relationship with the architect than their contemporary, Thomas Chippendale (d. 1779), due to the latter’s artistic independence, and their collaboration with Adam started in 1764. Some of their joint commissions included Coventry House, Piccadilly, Croome Court, Sherborne Castle, Audley End, Shelburne House, Northumberland House, Kimbolton and Derby House. The Drummond accounts also show payments to ‘Mayhew & Co’ on 8 and 22 June 1779 for respectively £100 and £72. However, the extent of the Mayhew & Ince commission may have been significantly more than these figures suggest as often in the case of London houses it was the architect who handled all payments. Notably, these accounts show that Lord Bathurst was a significant and wealthy patron who was acquiring works of art from the most pre-eminent craftsmen, Isaac Ware, John Cobb, William Chambers, Sefferin Nelson, John Devall and Mayhew & Ince in the second half of the 18th century.
The table demonstrates the partnership’s superb craftsmanship. Sideboard tables supplied by Mayhew & Ince in 1785 to James Alexander, 1st Earl of Caledon for the Large Dining Parlour and the Common Parlour are related with their use of figured mahogany veneers, tapering supports, distinctive stepped block feet and crisply carved ornamentation (H. Roberts, ‘Unequall’d Elegance’: Mayhew and Ince’s Furniture for James Alexander, 1st Earl of Caledon’, Furniture History Society, vol. XLV, 2009, pp. 109-111, figs. 9, 13). The present table also relates to a pair of painted side tables in the Dining Room at Broadlands, Hampshire illustrated in H. Roberts, ‘The Ince and Mayhew Connection, Furniture at Broadlands, Hampshire – I, Country Life, 29 January 1981, fig. 5). A sideboard table supplied by Mayhew and Ince to the 3rd Earl of Kerry in circa 1770, and a pier table with a similar possible provenance have comparable lozenge parquetry table-tops (C. Cator, ‘The Earl of Kerry and Mayhew and Ince ‘The Idlest Ostentation’, Furniture History Society, vol. XXVI, 1990, illustrated p. 32, figs. 1 and 2). Intriguingly, the Wiltshire-based cabinet-maker, Henry Hill of Marlborough, customarily adopted this distinctive lozenge parquetry for tops on Pembroke tables, of which there are two at Corsham Court, Wiltshire, attributed to Hill (see L. Wood, Catalogue of Commodes, London, 1994. pp. 67-69).
CIRENCESTER HOUSE
The table may have later been moved to the Bathurst country seat, Cirencester House, when Apsley House was purchased in 1807 by Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley, the elder brother of Sir Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (ten years later the latter acquired the mansion). Country Life photographs illustrate other pieces of neo-classical furniture at Cirencester House; these include two related side tables, in the Library and Dining rooms (C. Hussey, Cirencester House, Gloucestershire-I, 16 June 1950, fig. 13; unpublished 2925114).
MAYHEW & INCE
The Golden Square cabinet-making partnership of John Mayhew (d. 1811) and William Ince (d. 1804) were possibly recommended to Lord Bathurst by Robert Adam. The cabinet-makers undoubtedly had a closer relationship with the architect than their contemporary, Thomas Chippendale (d. 1779), due to the latter’s artistic independence, and their collaboration with Adam started in 1764. Some of their joint commissions included Coventry House, Piccadilly, Croome Court, Sherborne Castle, Audley End, Shelburne House, Northumberland House, Kimbolton and Derby House. The Drummond accounts also show payments to ‘Mayhew & Co’ on 8 and 22 June 1779 for respectively £100 and £72. However, the extent of the Mayhew & Ince commission may have been significantly more than these figures suggest as often in the case of London houses it was the architect who handled all payments. Notably, these accounts show that Lord Bathurst was a significant and wealthy patron who was acquiring works of art from the most pre-eminent craftsmen, Isaac Ware, John Cobb, William Chambers, Sefferin Nelson, John Devall and Mayhew & Ince in the second half of the 18th century.
The table demonstrates the partnership’s superb craftsmanship. Sideboard tables supplied by Mayhew & Ince in 1785 to James Alexander, 1st Earl of Caledon for the Large Dining Parlour and the Common Parlour are related with their use of figured mahogany veneers, tapering supports, distinctive stepped block feet and crisply carved ornamentation (H. Roberts, ‘Unequall’d Elegance’: Mayhew and Ince’s Furniture for James Alexander, 1st Earl of Caledon’, Furniture History Society, vol. XLV, 2009, pp. 109-111, figs. 9, 13). The present table also relates to a pair of painted side tables in the Dining Room at Broadlands, Hampshire illustrated in H. Roberts, ‘The Ince and Mayhew Connection, Furniture at Broadlands, Hampshire – I, Country Life, 29 January 1981, fig. 5). A sideboard table supplied by Mayhew and Ince to the 3rd Earl of Kerry in circa 1770, and a pier table with a similar possible provenance have comparable lozenge parquetry table-tops (C. Cator, ‘The Earl of Kerry and Mayhew and Ince ‘The Idlest Ostentation’, Furniture History Society, vol. XXVI, 1990, illustrated p. 32, figs. 1 and 2). Intriguingly, the Wiltshire-based cabinet-maker, Henry Hill of Marlborough, customarily adopted this distinctive lozenge parquetry for tops on Pembroke tables, of which there are two at Corsham Court, Wiltshire, attributed to Hill (see L. Wood, Catalogue of Commodes, London, 1994. pp. 67-69).
CIRENCESTER HOUSE
The table may have later been moved to the Bathurst country seat, Cirencester House, when Apsley House was purchased in 1807 by Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley, the elder brother of Sir Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (ten years later the latter acquired the mansion). Country Life photographs illustrate other pieces of neo-classical furniture at Cirencester House; these include two related side tables, in the Library and Dining rooms (C. Hussey, Cirencester House, Gloucestershire-I, 16 June 1950, fig. 13; unpublished 2925114).