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Lot Essay
This console table conceived in the George II ‘antique’ manner with richly carved garlands of fruit and flowers emblematic of plenty and a central scallop shell signifying the nature goddess Venus, is modeled on a design by Matthias Lock (1710-1765); the original drawing is held in the Prints & Drawings department of the Victoria & Albert Museum, London (Museum no. 2848:112). Lock was the first to publish rococo designs in England, and is accredited with having imbued the style with an ‘English’ feel. The ephemera held in the same album from which this drawing derives shows that his carving activities commenced as early as 1742-44. In his lifetime he was recognized as a superlative craftsman, and in circa 1768 the cabinet-maker, James Cullen posthumously referred to him as: ‘the famous Mr Matt Lock recently deceased who was reputed the best Draftsman in that way that had ever been in England’ (M. Heckscher, ‘Lock and Copeland: A Catalogue of the Engraved Ornament’, Furniture History, vol. 15 (1979), p. 5).
To date, only one other pair of tables of this design have been identified; they are virtually identical, but with small variations to the friezes, and with tops of verde antico marble. The comparable pair was formerly in the celebrated collection of Mrs Nellie Ionides, the daughter of 1st Viscount Bearsted, of Buxted Park, East Sussex. In 1965, these tables were purchased by the Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, Co. Durham, where they can now be found, from the dealer, Messrs. F.T. Biggs & Sons, of High Street, Maidenhead, with grants from the Victoria & Albert Museum, the National Art Collections Fund and The Friends of the Bowes Museum (‘Furniture for the Bowes Museum’, The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 108, No. 759 (June 1966), p. 319 and fig. 52; Museum no. FW.40.A).
The present example, and the Bowes pair, closely relate to a pier table with accompanying glass, designed by Lock for the 2nd Earl Poulett, for the Tapestry Room, Hinton House, Somerset (now in the Victoria & Albert Museum, Museum no.: W.8-1960 and W.35-1964). The original design also survives, and shows that it took eighty-nine days to make the table, and cost £22 5s 5d for the joiner and £21 for the carving. Lock worked on the table for fifteen days, the remainder being undertaken by his assistants.
Interestingly, the manner in which the extravagantly carved Venus shell is executed on the table offered here is reminiscent of the work of John Vardy (1718-1765) at Hackwood Park, Hampshire; such carving is found on a pier glass sold from Hackwood by Christie’s, London, 20-23 April 1998, lot 42, and a pair of side tables and pier glasses, illustrated A. Coleridge, ‘John Vardy and the Hackwood Suite’, Connoisseur, January 1962, Vol. 149, figs. 1 and 2, sold Christie’s, London, 8 July 1999, lots 52, 54, 55.
To date, only one other pair of tables of this design have been identified; they are virtually identical, but with small variations to the friezes, and with tops of verde antico marble. The comparable pair was formerly in the celebrated collection of Mrs Nellie Ionides, the daughter of 1st Viscount Bearsted, of Buxted Park, East Sussex. In 1965, these tables were purchased by the Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, Co. Durham, where they can now be found, from the dealer, Messrs. F.T. Biggs & Sons, of High Street, Maidenhead, with grants from the Victoria & Albert Museum, the National Art Collections Fund and The Friends of the Bowes Museum (‘Furniture for the Bowes Museum’, The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 108, No. 759 (June 1966), p. 319 and fig. 52; Museum no. FW.40.A).
The present example, and the Bowes pair, closely relate to a pier table with accompanying glass, designed by Lock for the 2nd Earl Poulett, for the Tapestry Room, Hinton House, Somerset (now in the Victoria & Albert Museum, Museum no.: W.8-1960 and W.35-1964). The original design also survives, and shows that it took eighty-nine days to make the table, and cost £22 5s 5d for the joiner and £21 for the carving. Lock worked on the table for fifteen days, the remainder being undertaken by his assistants.
Interestingly, the manner in which the extravagantly carved Venus shell is executed on the table offered here is reminiscent of the work of John Vardy (1718-1765) at Hackwood Park, Hampshire; such carving is found on a pier glass sold from Hackwood by Christie’s, London, 20-23 April 1998, lot 42, and a pair of side tables and pier glasses, illustrated A. Coleridge, ‘John Vardy and the Hackwood Suite’, Connoisseur, January 1962, Vol. 149, figs. 1 and 2, sold Christie’s, London, 8 July 1999, lots 52, 54, 55.