Lot Essay
The overall form of this table was inspired by one designed by collector and connoisseur Thomas Hope (1769-1831) for his home at Duchess Street, London. The table design appears in Hope's Household Furniture and Interior Decoration, 1807, pl. XXXIX.
The foliate border inlay on the top exactly reproduces a pattern for borders conceived by the cabinet-maker and sculptor George Bullock (1778-1819). This design appears on a tracing numbered 208 that forms part of a scrapbook of tracings and engravings related to the work of George Bullock that were copied and assembled by Thomas Wilkinson in 1820 (now in the City Museum and Art Gallery of Birmingham). This design border appears on a table of similar form that belonged to George Bullock himself and was sold at the sale of his effects in 1819; it was purchased by the Earl of Wemyss (illustrated in C. Wainwright, George Bullock, Cabinet-Maker, 1988, no. 33.).
A similar table was sold in these Rooms, 29 January 1994, lot 261.