拍品专文
The pair of sideboard-tables designed by George Bullock for Robert Ferguson's Dining-Room at Raith, display 'Grecian' black tops of Bullock's Welsh 'marble' (slate). Their columnar legs, which are wrapped by Egyptian-reeded bands, display Grecian-black libation-patterae recalling Ceres as harvest deity and popularised by Thomas Hope in his Household Furniture and Interior Decoration, London, 1807 (pl. XVIII, no. 5 and pl. XIX, no. 2). The latter ornament also featured on a variety of furniture that Bullock sent to St. Helena, following his commission in 1815 to design furnishing for a residence for Emperor Napoleon (see M. Levy, 'Napoleon in Exile', Furniture History, 1998, pp. 1-210).
The tables are listed in the 1895 Inventory of the Mansion House of Raith, Kirkcaldy (pp. 25 and 334) as:
'The Dining Room -
...Carved mahogany oblong side table with black marble top'
'Passage from East to West Corridor -
...Carved mahogany oblong table with black marble top'.
A related brown oak serving-table, with patera-enriched frieze, was supplied by George Bullock to Matthew Robinson Boulton for Tew Park, Great Tew, Oxfordshire in 1818. It was sold by the Executors of the late Major Eustace Robb, Tew Park, Christie's house sale, 27-29 May 1987, lot 57.
The tables are listed in the 1895 Inventory of the Mansion House of Raith, Kirkcaldy (pp. 25 and 334) as:
'The Dining Room -
...Carved mahogany oblong side table with black marble top'
'Passage from East to West Corridor -
...Carved mahogany oblong table with black marble top'.
A related brown oak serving-table, with patera-enriched frieze, was supplied by George Bullock to Matthew Robinson Boulton for Tew Park, Great Tew, Oxfordshire in 1818. It was sold by the Executors of the late Major Eustace Robb, Tew Park, Christie's house sale, 27-29 May 1987, lot 57.