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Lot Essay
This superb table reflects the fashionable and opulent Anglo-French style adopted by George IV when he was still Prince of Wales, while its inlaid marble and scagliola top evokes the splendor of ancient Rome. Architect Henry Holland, responsible for the Royal interiors at Carlton House (1783-96) and Brighton Pavilion (1786-87), achieved great success in his designs synthesizing the late Louis XVI style, combined with a Graeco-Roman influence. This 'Roman' fashion was particularly promoted by the architect Charles Heathcote Tatham (d. 1842) whom Holland employed in 1788. Tatham's studies in Rome resulted in the publication of two influential design books. C. H. Tatham’s cabinet-making brother Thomas Tatham entered into partnership in 1798 with the Prince's cabinet-maker William Marsh of Mount Street, Mayfair. The firm is variously listed in late 18th and early 19th century bills and directories reflecting the partnerships of George Elward, Edward Bailey and Richard Saunders and the firm worked with the Royal family under these various partnerships from 1783 through 1820.
DESIGN SOURCE
The table closely resembles an example in the influential publication by architects and interior designers Charles Percier and Pierre-François-Léonard Fontaine, Recueil de Décorations Intérieures, 1812, pl. 21, made for Count S. in St. Petersburg, Russia, illustrated here. In particular, the drawing illustrates scrolling foliate mounts along the top of the central tapering stem and along the edges, with further anthemion and laurel medallions on each side. The unusual double columnar supports on the outer edge may indicate this was originally conceived with a marble or scagliola tabletop in mind, a design feature which is evidently shared with the table offered here. A series of tables, most of which also featured inlaid marble tops, were commissioned for Napoleon's Imperial palaces, including one supplied to Malmaison (now in the Salon Doré), one to Saint Cloud (now in the Victoria and Albert Museum and illustrated in L. de Gröer, les Arts Décoratifs de 1790 à 1850, Fribourg, 1985, p. 58, fig. 86) and one supplied by Jacob-Desmalter in 1805 for Joachim Murat's residence (now the Elysée Palace), now at the Grand Trianon, Versailles.
THE TOP
The motifs on this tabletop, which could quite conceivably be slightly earlier than the Regency base, are more directly inspired by ancient Greek and Roman motifs. The birds drinking from the fonts are reminiscent of the Roman Capotoline Doves, alternating with literal representations of Attic vases, around a central roundel with scenes on familiar figural hydria. The marble top is mosaiced in scagliola and richly polychromed in the Roman/Etruscan fashion promoted by the Rome-trained court architect Robert Adam (d. 1792), and popularized by the second volume of his Works in Architecture of Robert and James Adam, 1777. The configuration of the symbols in perfect Grecian symmetry is also evocative of Adam’s design for the Etruscan dressing room at Osterley. Amongst the most celebrated 'Inlayers in Marbles and Stucco-workers' employed by Adam to execute such work was Dominic Bartoli. The firm of Bartoli and Richter was employed in the early 1780s at the Carlton House palace of George, Prince of Wales, later George IV, and they are likely to have supplied the related medallion-enriched chimneypiece that is now incorporated in St. James Palace. There are a number of records in the Royal Archives of Bartoli having produced work for Carlton House between 1784 and 1805. In 1784 he was paid £450 for "work done at Carlton House" (RA Geo/34975) and in 1805 he writes begging for payment for "the tables" (RA Geo/25189). A payment of £84 is made on 11th March 1805 (RA Geo/25190) for "two Scagliola Tables inlaid with foliage and ornament", for which Bartoli signs a receipt (RA Geo/25190a). Finally, Jutsham records the return to Bartoli of a semicircular table inlaid with flowers (which was not wanted) in March 1807. Bartoli designed a pair of table tops (sold at Christie’s London, 30 April 1796, lots 87 and 88) that were described as ‘a beautiful Scaliola slab, exquisitely inlaid with figures from the antique.’ A similar pair of demi-lune scagliola-inlaid tables attributed to Dominic Bartoli was sold Christie’s, London, 25 November 2005, lot 120.
DESIGN SOURCE
The table closely resembles an example in the influential publication by architects and interior designers Charles Percier and Pierre-François-Léonard Fontaine, Recueil de Décorations Intérieures, 1812, pl. 21, made for Count S. in St. Petersburg, Russia, illustrated here. In particular, the drawing illustrates scrolling foliate mounts along the top of the central tapering stem and along the edges, with further anthemion and laurel medallions on each side. The unusual double columnar supports on the outer edge may indicate this was originally conceived with a marble or scagliola tabletop in mind, a design feature which is evidently shared with the table offered here. A series of tables, most of which also featured inlaid marble tops, were commissioned for Napoleon's Imperial palaces, including one supplied to Malmaison (now in the Salon Doré), one to Saint Cloud (now in the Victoria and Albert Museum and illustrated in L. de Gröer, les Arts Décoratifs de 1790 à 1850, Fribourg, 1985, p. 58, fig. 86) and one supplied by Jacob-Desmalter in 1805 for Joachim Murat's residence (now the Elysée Palace), now at the Grand Trianon, Versailles.
THE TOP
The motifs on this tabletop, which could quite conceivably be slightly earlier than the Regency base, are more directly inspired by ancient Greek and Roman motifs. The birds drinking from the fonts are reminiscent of the Roman Capotoline Doves, alternating with literal representations of Attic vases, around a central roundel with scenes on familiar figural hydria. The marble top is mosaiced in scagliola and richly polychromed in the Roman/Etruscan fashion promoted by the Rome-trained court architect Robert Adam (d. 1792), and popularized by the second volume of his Works in Architecture of Robert and James Adam, 1777. The configuration of the symbols in perfect Grecian symmetry is also evocative of Adam’s design for the Etruscan dressing room at Osterley. Amongst the most celebrated 'Inlayers in Marbles and Stucco-workers' employed by Adam to execute such work was Dominic Bartoli. The firm of Bartoli and Richter was employed in the early 1780s at the Carlton House palace of George, Prince of Wales, later George IV, and they are likely to have supplied the related medallion-enriched chimneypiece that is now incorporated in St. James Palace. There are a number of records in the Royal Archives of Bartoli having produced work for Carlton House between 1784 and 1805. In 1784 he was paid £450 for "work done at Carlton House" (RA Geo/34975) and in 1805 he writes begging for payment for "the tables" (RA Geo/25189). A payment of £84 is made on 11th March 1805 (RA Geo/25190) for "two Scagliola Tables inlaid with foliage and ornament", for which Bartoli signs a receipt (RA Geo/25190a). Finally, Jutsham records the return to Bartoli of a semicircular table inlaid with flowers (which was not wanted) in March 1807. Bartoli designed a pair of table tops (sold at Christie’s London, 30 April 1796, lots 87 and 88) that were described as ‘a beautiful Scaliola slab, exquisitely inlaid with figures from the antique.’ A similar pair of demi-lune scagliola-inlaid tables attributed to Dominic Bartoli was sold Christie’s, London, 25 November 2005, lot 120.