Lot Essay
The imposing 'Kesteven' table formed part of the furnishings commissioned by the Committee Room of the Kesteven Sessions House at Sleaford, Lincolnshire to serve both as a banqueting-table and committee table. The oak table is richly carved in the George IV Elizabethan style, combining classical and Gothic elements with oak-quatrefoils, emblematic both of Jupiter, the Law-giver, and Hospitality, framing the inscription 'Kesteven' within a carved gothic cusped tablet; while its legs are enriched with acanthus and gothic-arched flutes. It is likely to have been executed under the direction of Henry Edward Kendall (d.1875), architect of the Sessions House, and was probably covered in purple cloth to match the Morocco upholstery of the Committee Room seat furniture. It was executed en suite with the 'Elegant Carved Gothic Chairman's Chair' and formed part of the furnishings supplied by the London cabinet-maker Alexander Norton of Manchester Square (fl.1822-37), whose 1830 invoice totalled £537.19.0 (MS. preserved in the Lincolnshire Archives Office).