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Lot Essay
THE DESIGN
This pair of elegant and richly veneered tables closely resemble a design illustrated in Thomas Hope’s celebrated publication Household Furniture and Interior Decoration published in 1807 (plate 32) and reflects the early 19th-century interest in such antique revival styles. Hope’s designs were inspired by the classical ideal of Greek, Roman and other ancient ornament, adapted for the modern world.
During the late 18th century, British victories over the Dutch forces in Ceylon had helped popularize the fashion for Calamander wood, whose dark color was well suited for the contemporary 'Grecian' style of furniture. Early 19th century publications like in Thomas Sheraton’s in The Cabinet Dictionary, 1803, and Hope’s publication promoted the use of dark woods such as rosewood, kingwood, and calamander. Hope’s designs incorporated Greek ornament such as similarly distinctive palmette mounts, monopodia headed legs, and Grecian-scrolled claw-feet.
THE TOPS
The marble tops are constructed largely of volcanic stones. The use of this remarkable material became fashionable among Grand Tour collectors in the late 18th and early 19th centuries who held high regard for the marmisti (marble workers) skill for inlaying hardstones and range of specimens. The striking varieties used to create the top of these tables appear to be volcanic specimens from the south of Italy, and related mosaic tops can be found at Paxton House in Scotland. Patrick Home of Wedderburn (1728-1808), who had embarked on a Grand Tour to Italy in 1750-51 and again in 1771-79, returned to Scotland with vast collections of Italian pictures, vases, chimneypieces and marble tops, including several incorporating specimen lava. Sir William Hamilton (1730 - 1803) served as British Ambassador to the court in Naples and become interested in volcanoes upon the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 1765. Hamilton is responsible for bringing numerous specimens to the British Museum between 1767 and 1770, and recruited the Sicilian Count Joseph Giveni of Catania to prepare studies of Mount Etna in 1781 who presented him with a tray of polished tablets of Sicilian volcanic rocks and lavas. Three more geometrically laid specimen lava slabs were bought by Brownlow Cecil, 9th Earl of Exeter (d. 1793) for Burghley House, Lincolnshire, during his Grand Tour 1763-4, and another was given by 9th Earl to the British Museum in 1764. One of this pair of tables is illustrated in M. Jourdain, Regency Furniture, rev. ed., London, 1965, fig. 119.
CASTLE ASHBY
Castle Ashby House is located in Northamptonshire, England, and was originally erected as a manor house for the Bishop of Coventry. In 1306, Bishop Walter Langton was given permission to castellate his manor in the village of Ashby. The present elevation of the Castle was started by Henry, 1st Baron Compton in 1574, in the classic E-shaped floorplan in honor of Queen Elizabeth who first visited in 1600. Though Capability Brown renovated the gardens in 1760, it was not until the 1860s that the interiors were revisited under the guidance of Sir Digby Wyatt. In 1867, E. W. Godwin undertook further work mostly to the peripheral buildings.
This pair of elegant and richly veneered tables closely resemble a design illustrated in Thomas Hope’s celebrated publication Household Furniture and Interior Decoration published in 1807 (plate 32) and reflects the early 19th-century interest in such antique revival styles. Hope’s designs were inspired by the classical ideal of Greek, Roman and other ancient ornament, adapted for the modern world.
During the late 18th century, British victories over the Dutch forces in Ceylon had helped popularize the fashion for Calamander wood, whose dark color was well suited for the contemporary 'Grecian' style of furniture. Early 19th century publications like in Thomas Sheraton’s in The Cabinet Dictionary, 1803, and Hope’s publication promoted the use of dark woods such as rosewood, kingwood, and calamander. Hope’s designs incorporated Greek ornament such as similarly distinctive palmette mounts, monopodia headed legs, and Grecian-scrolled claw-feet.
THE TOPS
The marble tops are constructed largely of volcanic stones. The use of this remarkable material became fashionable among Grand Tour collectors in the late 18th and early 19th centuries who held high regard for the marmisti (marble workers) skill for inlaying hardstones and range of specimens. The striking varieties used to create the top of these tables appear to be volcanic specimens from the south of Italy, and related mosaic tops can be found at Paxton House in Scotland. Patrick Home of Wedderburn (1728-1808), who had embarked on a Grand Tour to Italy in 1750-51 and again in 1771-79, returned to Scotland with vast collections of Italian pictures, vases, chimneypieces and marble tops, including several incorporating specimen lava. Sir William Hamilton (1730 - 1803) served as British Ambassador to the court in Naples and become interested in volcanoes upon the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 1765. Hamilton is responsible for bringing numerous specimens to the British Museum between 1767 and 1770, and recruited the Sicilian Count Joseph Giveni of Catania to prepare studies of Mount Etna in 1781 who presented him with a tray of polished tablets of Sicilian volcanic rocks and lavas. Three more geometrically laid specimen lava slabs were bought by Brownlow Cecil, 9th Earl of Exeter (d. 1793) for Burghley House, Lincolnshire, during his Grand Tour 1763-4, and another was given by 9th Earl to the British Museum in 1764. One of this pair of tables is illustrated in M. Jourdain, Regency Furniture, rev. ed., London, 1965, fig. 119.
CASTLE ASHBY
Castle Ashby House is located in Northamptonshire, England, and was originally erected as a manor house for the Bishop of Coventry. In 1306, Bishop Walter Langton was given permission to castellate his manor in the village of Ashby. The present elevation of the Castle was started by Henry, 1st Baron Compton in 1574, in the classic E-shaped floorplan in honor of Queen Elizabeth who first visited in 1600. Though Capability Brown renovated the gardens in 1760, it was not until the 1860s that the interiors were revisited under the guidance of Sir Digby Wyatt. In 1867, E. W. Godwin undertook further work mostly to the peripheral buildings.
