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Lot Essay
These elegant card tables were conceived for window-piers and designed in the George II `Antique' manner harmonising with India-back parlour chairs with vase splats. Their tops are wreathed in festive manner with French flowered ribbon-guilloche above conforming gadrooned frames, while their legs are cabriole legs are wrapped with `Roman' acanthus and strapwork and terminate in eagle-claws. They reflect the fashion promoted by Thomas Chippendale in The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director, first published in 1754, and by other prestigious cabinet-makers such as the Soho Square partnership of William Bradshaw and Paul Saunders who supplied a suite of furniture including armchairs, settees and card-tables for Holkham Hall, Norfolk, in 1757, and probably also supplied furniture for Longleat, Wiltshire, around 1754, prominently carved with foliage and strapwork scrolls similar to the tables offered here.
Such tables have long been prized by connoisseurs and have featured in important collections of English furniture. Similar examples from the collection of J.S.Sykes are illustrated in R.W.Symonds, Masterpieces of English Furniture and Clocks, London, 1940, p.31, fig.23 and p.43, fig.130. The former had the distinction of having been previously owned by Percival Griffiths and, after it was sold from the Sykes collection, by Christopher Joll Esq., and then Simon Sainsbury. It was sold most recently from the Sainsbury Collection Christie's, London, 11 September 2008, lot 210 (£67,250 including premium).
Although the invoiced describes tables with straight legs, it is clear that there wasn't ever a second pair of card tables in the collection, and indeed the wording was repeated in subsequent typed and printed documents relating to the collection. It seems probable that it was simply a mistake that has been perpetuated ever since.
H. TIBATS
Many fine pieces of mid-18th Century case furniture, particularly card tables, have 'H. TIBATS' stamped on their hinges. The stamp almost certainly refers to 'Hugh Tibbatts', 'hinge and sash fastening maker' of Bell Street Wolverhampton, listed relatively late in the 1781 Pearson & Rollason Directory for Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Walsall, Dudley, Bilston and Willenhall. There appears to be no mention of Tibats, Tibbats or Tibbatts (the spelling of the name varies) in the West Midlands area after 1781. That the stamp appears on pieces of earlier date, the business was probably long-established by 1781. A concertina-action card table, circa 1755-60, with quadrant hinges stamped 'H. Tibats’ is in the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum (W.65:1-1962). The name Tibats was first brought to notice in 1966, by Peter Thornton who highlighted the latter table and another privately owned card table. However, at this date the origins of the metalworker had not been established (P. Thornton, 'A Signed Hinge', Furniture History Society, vol. 2, 1966, pp. 44-45).
Such tables have long been prized by connoisseurs and have featured in important collections of English furniture. Similar examples from the collection of J.S.Sykes are illustrated in R.W.Symonds, Masterpieces of English Furniture and Clocks, London, 1940, p.31, fig.23 and p.43, fig.130. The former had the distinction of having been previously owned by Percival Griffiths and, after it was sold from the Sykes collection, by Christopher Joll Esq., and then Simon Sainsbury. It was sold most recently from the Sainsbury Collection Christie's, London, 11 September 2008, lot 210 (£67,250 including premium).
Although the invoiced describes tables with straight legs, it is clear that there wasn't ever a second pair of card tables in the collection, and indeed the wording was repeated in subsequent typed and printed documents relating to the collection. It seems probable that it was simply a mistake that has been perpetuated ever since.
H. TIBATS
Many fine pieces of mid-18th Century case furniture, particularly card tables, have 'H. TIBATS' stamped on their hinges. The stamp almost certainly refers to 'Hugh Tibbatts', 'hinge and sash fastening maker' of Bell Street Wolverhampton, listed relatively late in the 1781 Pearson & Rollason Directory for Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Walsall, Dudley, Bilston and Willenhall. There appears to be no mention of Tibats, Tibbats or Tibbatts (the spelling of the name varies) in the West Midlands area after 1781. That the stamp appears on pieces of earlier date, the business was probably long-established by 1781. A concertina-action card table, circa 1755-60, with quadrant hinges stamped 'H. Tibats’ is in the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum (W.65:1-1962). The name Tibats was first brought to notice in 1966, by Peter Thornton who highlighted the latter table and another privately owned card table. However, at this date the origins of the metalworker had not been established (P. Thornton, 'A Signed Hinge', Furniture History Society, vol. 2, 1966, pp. 44-45).