CIRCA 1750, THE MOUNTS GEORGE II AND PROBABLY ORIGINAL, THE BACK LEGS PROBABLY LATER SHAPED

This table formed part of the collection at Malahide Castle, Co. Dublin, home of the Talbot family, and one of the oldest inhabited houses in Ireland. While elements of the castle date to the late 15th/early 16th century, the castle and its interiors were extensively reconstructed from about 1760 with the succession of Richard Talbot. While many of the structural alterations were 'gothic' in style, Georgian interiors were also incorporated. In the 1977 Christie's sale, this table was sold from the Large Drawing Room, a principal room characterized by its neoclassic marble chimneypiece and entablatures, as well as its rococo plasterwork details by Dublin artisans. Presumably much of the Irish Georgian furniture in the collection was acquired at this date, but some of these examples may have been brought to Malahide in the early years of the 20th century. The 5th Lord Talbot, who succeeded in 1883, married the youngest daughter of Sir James Boswell, 2nd Baronet of Auchinlect and grandson of Dr. Johnson's biographer. Their son, Lord Tablot de Malahide, inherited Auchinleck and its contents and when that house was sold, its principal contents were brought to Malahide (see C. Hussey, 'Malahide Castle, Co. Dublin-I and II', Country Life, 18 April 1947, pp.710-713; and 25 April 1947, pp.760-763).

The table is a fascinating example of the influence of French taste in the mid-18th century English and Irish furniture design, with its rococo ormolu embellishments which appear to be eighteenth century in date and of English or Irish manufacture.