Lot Essay
The plinth-based sideboard-pedestals, with moulded cornices capped by moulded plinths have 'commode' doors embellished with libation-paterae in the 'antique' manner. Their French hollowed-corner mouldings, framing panels of richly-figured mahogany, correspond to a 1759 pattern published in Thomas Chippendale's Gentlemen and Cabinet-Maker's Director, 1763, pl. XVIII. This moulding also featured in a pattern for sideboard 'pedestals and vases' published in Messrs Hepplewhite & Co.'s, Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Guide, 1788, pl. 36, with the explanation that they were intended to flank a sideboard-table
and
'One pedestal serves as a plate-warmer, being provided with racks and a stand for a heater, and is lined with strong tin; the other pedestal is used as a pot cupboard'
The cupboard is fitted in the right pedestal of this pair beneath zinc-lined drawers, which as the Guide explained was to
'hold water for the use of the butler, or iced water for drinking...'
These pedestals were commissioned by Patrick Home of Billie (d.1808) following the completion of the building of Wedderburn Castle, Berwickshire in the mid 1770s by the architect Robert Adam (d.1792), and can be attributed to the St. Martin's Lane workshops of Thomas Chippendale (d.1779). Their medallioned paterae also feature on the Castle's drawing-room chairs supplied by the Chippendale workshops (see: J. Cornforth, 'Paxton House, Berwickshire', Country Life, 29 April 1993 p. 84, fig. 7).
The 'Two Mahogany Pedestals one a Plate warmer the other for water' accompanied the 'Mahogany sideboard table' listed in the dining-room in the 1783 and 1793 inventories of the Castle.
As Patrick Home (Edinburgh RO, No. GD267) acquisitions for Wedderburn during his 1774 grand tour of Italy included a marble chimneypiece designed by Giovani Battista Piranesi (d.1778), it is likely that his dining-room pedestals, with their plinth-tops, were intended for busts rather than vases.
George Home (d.1820), while refurbishing the house in the early 19th Century antique manner, added lion-paw feet and equipped them with Grecian-reeded vases which remained until 1980. The latter are likely to have replaced marble busts, such as those illustrated on them in a gallery at Webberburn Castle in 1974 (see A. Rowan, 'Wedderburn Castle', Country Life, 8 August 1974, p. 357, fig. 9)
'The two pedestals of mahogany with fluted vases and covers for do' were listed with the 'Slab Sideboard with truss legs' in the 1852
'Inventory and Valuation of Wedderburn'. The three items were then valued at ¨6, and were accompanied in the dining-room by a 'Massive Mahogany Pedestal Sideboard', which was valued at ¨12. The latter, accompanied by its 'cellarette', also featured in the 1901 inventory of the Castle, while these pedestals, described as
'two mahogany pedestals with wine coolers on top, one fitted with drawers etc.', still accompanied the 'Smaller mahogany truss sideboard'
We are grateful to Sebastian Pryke, Esq., for his help in preparing this catalogue entry
and
'One pedestal serves as a plate-warmer, being provided with racks and a stand for a heater, and is lined with strong tin; the other pedestal is used as a pot cupboard'
The cupboard is fitted in the right pedestal of this pair beneath zinc-lined drawers, which as the Guide explained was to
'hold water for the use of the butler, or iced water for drinking...'
These pedestals were commissioned by Patrick Home of Billie (d.1808) following the completion of the building of Wedderburn Castle, Berwickshire in the mid 1770s by the architect Robert Adam (d.1792), and can be attributed to the St. Martin's Lane workshops of Thomas Chippendale (d.1779). Their medallioned paterae also feature on the Castle's drawing-room chairs supplied by the Chippendale workshops (see: J. Cornforth, 'Paxton House, Berwickshire', Country Life, 29 April 1993 p. 84, fig. 7).
The 'Two Mahogany Pedestals one a Plate warmer the other for water' accompanied the 'Mahogany sideboard table' listed in the dining-room in the 1783 and 1793 inventories of the Castle.
As Patrick Home (Edinburgh RO, No. GD267) acquisitions for Wedderburn during his 1774 grand tour of Italy included a marble chimneypiece designed by Giovani Battista Piranesi (d.1778), it is likely that his dining-room pedestals, with their plinth-tops, were intended for busts rather than vases.
George Home (d.1820), while refurbishing the house in the early 19th Century antique manner, added lion-paw feet and equipped them with Grecian-reeded vases which remained until 1980. The latter are likely to have replaced marble busts, such as those illustrated on them in a gallery at Webberburn Castle in 1974 (see A. Rowan, 'Wedderburn Castle', Country Life, 8 August 1974, p. 357, fig. 9)
'The two pedestals of mahogany with fluted vases and covers for do' were listed with the 'Slab Sideboard with truss legs' in the 1852
'Inventory and Valuation of Wedderburn'. The three items were then valued at ¨6, and were accompanied in the dining-room by a 'Massive Mahogany Pedestal Sideboard', which was valued at ¨12. The latter, accompanied by its 'cellarette', also featured in the 1901 inventory of the Castle, while these pedestals, described as
'two mahogany pedestals with wine coolers on top, one fitted with drawers etc.', still accompanied the 'Smaller mahogany truss sideboard'
We are grateful to Sebastian Pryke, Esq., for his help in preparing this catalogue entry