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Lot Essay
The 'candelabrum' table of black figured rosewood is railed with a Grecian ribbon-fret and supported on a columnar pillar, whose hollow-sided 'tripod-altar' plinth has monopodiae of winged and palm-wrapped lion paws recalling the chimerical griffin, sacred to Apollo as sun and poetry deity.
Its pillar is bronzed and gilded in the antique fashion of 1800; and, with its tapered form and reed-enriched flutes, derives from a Roman candelabrum introduced at this period by the connoisseur Thomas Hope (d. 1842) at his Duchess Street mansion museum and illustrated in his Household Furniture and Interior Decoration, 1807, pl. IX. The monopodiae (now lacking their paws) derive from one of Hope's gilt bronze tripod candelabrum (pl. L, no. 3).
It may originally have formed part of a suite of drawing-room furniture accompanying Grecian sofas.
A pair of tables of this pattern, sold from the collection of Lord and Lady White of Hull, Christie's New York, 30 April 1997, lot 226, were illustrated in E. Joy, English Furniture, 1800-1851, London, 1977, p. 65.
A pair of related rosewood tables, likewise derived from Hope's candelabra patterns, formed part of the drawing room furniture supplied around 1809 by the Mount Street firm of Marsh and Tatham for Southill, Bedfordshire (G. Jackson-Stops, 'Southill Park, Bedfordshire', Country Life, 28 April 1994, pp. 62-67; and F.J.B. Watson, 'The Furniture and Decoration', Southill: A Regency House, London, 1951, pp. 29-30, pl. 45).
In view of the close relationship of these tables, it is possible that this table was executed by the celebrated firm of Marsh and Tatham, which helped to furnish the Carlton House palace of George, Prince of Wales, later King George IV.
Its pillar is bronzed and gilded in the antique fashion of 1800; and, with its tapered form and reed-enriched flutes, derives from a Roman candelabrum introduced at this period by the connoisseur Thomas Hope (d. 1842) at his Duchess Street mansion museum and illustrated in his Household Furniture and Interior Decoration, 1807, pl. IX. The monopodiae (now lacking their paws) derive from one of Hope's gilt bronze tripod candelabrum (pl. L, no. 3).
It may originally have formed part of a suite of drawing-room furniture accompanying Grecian sofas.
A pair of tables of this pattern, sold from the collection of Lord and Lady White of Hull, Christie's New York, 30 April 1997, lot 226, were illustrated in E. Joy, English Furniture, 1800-1851, London, 1977, p. 65.
A pair of related rosewood tables, likewise derived from Hope's candelabra patterns, formed part of the drawing room furniture supplied around 1809 by the Mount Street firm of Marsh and Tatham for Southill, Bedfordshire (G. Jackson-Stops, 'Southill Park, Bedfordshire', Country Life, 28 April 1994, pp. 62-67; and F.J.B. Watson, 'The Furniture and Decoration', Southill: A Regency House, London, 1951, pp. 29-30, pl. 45).
In view of the close relationship of these tables, it is possible that this table was executed by the celebrated firm of Marsh and Tatham, which helped to furnish the Carlton House palace of George, Prince of Wales, later King George IV.