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Lot Essay
This table was one of the few lots illustrated in the Beningborough Hall house sale catalogue in 1958, with its own full page photograph. In that catalogue it was described as:
AN 18th CENTURY MAHOGANY CARLTON HOUSE WRITING TABLE satinwood string lined, with adjustable writing slope, the upper part fitted eight drawers and cupboards, three drawers in frieze carved with oval paterae, supported on reeded square tapering legs, brass handles, 5ft. 2in. wide (reputed to be the table used by the First Earl of Chesterfield).
The reputed provenance is certainly wrong. The 1st Earl of Chesterfield was created in 1628 and died in 1656. The table cannot even have been used by his most famous descendant, the 4th Earl, the author of Chesterfield's Letters, who lived fom 1694-1773. Furthermore, this reputed provenance implies that the table was original to Beningborough Hall itself which is itself almost certainly not true. In the first edition of The Dictionary of English Furniture, published in 1927, this desk was said to have come from Holme Lacy in Herefordshire. This magnificent house had been inherited by the Earls of Chesterfield and sold in 1909 or 1910. Much of its contents were then moved to Beningborough Hall, including a magnificent pair of gilt-gesso chandeliers now attributed to Moore and Gumley. One of these chandeliers was most recently sold at Christie's New York in January 1995 for $717,500 and now hangs in the Kirtlington Park room at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. These chandeliers are known from early photographs to have been at Holme Lacy and they are correctly captioned as such in the same edition of the Dictionary, only ten years after the move to Beningborough Hall would have taken place.
On this evidence it is known that the authors of the Dictionary were aware of what was from which house, and so their caption on this Carlton House desk is assumed to be correct. The inaccuracy of the house sale catalogue is emphasised by the fact that no mention at all is made of the provenance of the gilt-gesso chandeliers.
Another table of this model that had reputedly belonged to the Duke of Wellington was sold anonymously, Christie's New York, 16 April 1994, lot 128. It was stamped by W. Priest, a dealer in London in the 19th Century. Another was sold from the collection of Arthur Curtiss James, Parke-Bernet, New York, 2-4 December 1941, lot 778. Another which lacked either reading-slope or gallery was sold at Sotheby's New York, 13 October 1994, lot 125.
AN 18th CENTURY MAHOGANY CARLTON HOUSE WRITING TABLE satinwood string lined, with adjustable writing slope, the upper part fitted eight drawers and cupboards, three drawers in frieze carved with oval paterae, supported on reeded square tapering legs, brass handles, 5ft. 2in. wide (reputed to be the table used by the First Earl of Chesterfield).
The reputed provenance is certainly wrong. The 1st Earl of Chesterfield was created in 1628 and died in 1656. The table cannot even have been used by his most famous descendant, the 4th Earl, the author of Chesterfield's Letters, who lived fom 1694-1773. Furthermore, this reputed provenance implies that the table was original to Beningborough Hall itself which is itself almost certainly not true. In the first edition of The Dictionary of English Furniture, published in 1927, this desk was said to have come from Holme Lacy in Herefordshire. This magnificent house had been inherited by the Earls of Chesterfield and sold in 1909 or 1910. Much of its contents were then moved to Beningborough Hall, including a magnificent pair of gilt-gesso chandeliers now attributed to Moore and Gumley. One of these chandeliers was most recently sold at Christie's New York in January 1995 for $717,500 and now hangs in the Kirtlington Park room at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. These chandeliers are known from early photographs to have been at Holme Lacy and they are correctly captioned as such in the same edition of the Dictionary, only ten years after the move to Beningborough Hall would have taken place.
On this evidence it is known that the authors of the Dictionary were aware of what was from which house, and so their caption on this Carlton House desk is assumed to be correct. The inaccuracy of the house sale catalogue is emphasised by the fact that no mention at all is made of the provenance of the gilt-gesso chandeliers.
Another table of this model that had reputedly belonged to the Duke of Wellington was sold anonymously, Christie's New York, 16 April 1994, lot 128. It was stamped by W. Priest, a dealer in London in the 19th Century. Another was sold from the collection of Arthur Curtiss James, Parke-Bernet, New York, 2-4 December 1941, lot 778. Another which lacked either reading-slope or gallery was sold at Sotheby's New York, 13 October 1994, lot 125.