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Lot Essay
The 'sideboard' pier-table is designed and sculpted in low bas-relief in the early l8th century 'Roman' or French/antique fashion, derived from the engraved works in the 'Louis Quatorze' fashion issued by the court 'architect' Daniel Marot around 1700.
Its rectangular 'tablet' is ribbon-mosaiced in compartments around a flowered medallion, while its molded border has indented corners and is wreathed by an Arcadian 'Pan' reed. The paradisical Golden Age is evoked by the triumphal shell-badges of the nature-deity Venus and these are tied among flowered and wave-scrolled ribbons to the central medallion, which displays a Roman acanthus flower. Similar beribboned foliage embellishes its 'sarcophagus' scrolled frame, whose foliated 'labrequin' cartouche displays the feather-dressed head of one of natures nymphs, while the truss-scrolled columnar legs display cartouches with the heads of festive satyrs, the companions of the mythical wine-deity Bacchus.
Related heads feature on a table that is likely to have been commissioned around 1718 to celebrate the marriage of William, Marquess of Hartington, later 3rd Duke of Devonshire, whose monogram it bears (O. Brackett, English Furniture Illustrated, 1927, p. 182).
A table with entwined 'C' cypher, thought to be supplied by the Royal cabinet-maker and upholsterer James Moore (d. 1726) for James Brydges, Marquess of Carnarvon and Duke of Chandos (1673-1744) features similar satyr masks with feathered headdresses standing on pad feet. The table, now at the Treasurer's House, York is illustrated in T. Murdoch, 'The king's cabinet-maker: the giltwood furniture of James Moore the Elder', The Burlington Magazine, June 2003, p. 417, fig. 22. A foliate-enriched concave frieze and Indian masks also appear on a marriage chest by Moore formerly at Stowe, Buckinghamshire, which bears the arms of Richard Temple, Baron Cobham (ibid., p. 410, fig. 8).
Similar gilt-gesso tables carved with satyr masks include one from the collection of Lord Plender (R.W. Symonds, Masterpieces of English Furniture and Clocks, 1986, p. 72), and another with female masks in the collection of S. Jon Gerstenfeld and illustrated in E. Lennox-Boyd, ed., Masterpieces of English Furniture: The Gerstenfeld Collection, London, 1998, p. 74, fig. 54. A further comparable example is illustrated in L. Synge, Mallett's Great English Furniture, London, 1991, p. 87, fig. 92.
Its rectangular 'tablet' is ribbon-mosaiced in compartments around a flowered medallion, while its molded border has indented corners and is wreathed by an Arcadian 'Pan' reed. The paradisical Golden Age is evoked by the triumphal shell-badges of the nature-deity Venus and these are tied among flowered and wave-scrolled ribbons to the central medallion, which displays a Roman acanthus flower. Similar beribboned foliage embellishes its 'sarcophagus' scrolled frame, whose foliated 'labrequin' cartouche displays the feather-dressed head of one of natures nymphs, while the truss-scrolled columnar legs display cartouches with the heads of festive satyrs, the companions of the mythical wine-deity Bacchus.
Related heads feature on a table that is likely to have been commissioned around 1718 to celebrate the marriage of William, Marquess of Hartington, later 3rd Duke of Devonshire, whose monogram it bears (O. Brackett, English Furniture Illustrated, 1927, p. 182).
A table with entwined 'C' cypher, thought to be supplied by the Royal cabinet-maker and upholsterer James Moore (d. 1726) for James Brydges, Marquess of Carnarvon and Duke of Chandos (1673-1744) features similar satyr masks with feathered headdresses standing on pad feet. The table, now at the Treasurer's House, York is illustrated in T. Murdoch, 'The king's cabinet-maker: the giltwood furniture of James Moore the Elder', The Burlington Magazine, June 2003, p. 417, fig. 22. A foliate-enriched concave frieze and Indian masks also appear on a marriage chest by Moore formerly at Stowe, Buckinghamshire, which bears the arms of Richard Temple, Baron Cobham (ibid., p. 410, fig. 8).
Similar gilt-gesso tables carved with satyr masks include one from the collection of Lord Plender (R.W. Symonds, Masterpieces of English Furniture and Clocks, 1986, p. 72), and another with female masks in the collection of S. Jon Gerstenfeld and illustrated in E. Lennox-Boyd, ed., Masterpieces of English Furniture: The Gerstenfeld Collection, London, 1998, p. 74, fig. 54. A further comparable example is illustrated in L. Synge, Mallett's Great English Furniture, London, 1991, p. 87, fig. 92.