拍品專文
The rectangular frame, designed in the George II 'antique' manner of William Kent (d. 1748) with a frieze of scalloped waterleaves amongst roman foliage above a flowered-ribbon torus, is embellished with a scalloped baldequin cartouche centred by a nymph mask with drapery veil. She no doubt represents the sea-goddess Amphitrite, who married the sea-ruler Poseidon (Neptune). The canted and serpentined console bracket supports, which are embellished with roman foliage and imbrications of dolphin-scales, emblematic of Venus, are surmounted by 'herm' busts of sirens with acanthus skirts in the 'arabesque' manner. Their wing feathers merge with acanthus and husk-enriched brackets, whose bifurcating scrolls bear garlands of Zeus' sacred oak, that festoon a Venus-shell badge. The latter is set within an ancient scalloped cartouche and supported on the serpentined and imbricated stretchers. The side stretchers are embellished en suite, while the imbricated back legs are enriched with foliage and husk pendants and surmounted by entwined scallop-shells.
The garland-bearing sirens correspond to those of side tables that incorporate youths embracing bacchic-masks, and were designed about 1730 by Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington, and the artist/architect William Kent (d. 1748) for the Earl's saloon at his Chiswick villa (see: T. Rosomon, ...). While this type of table relates to patterns in the French manner of N. Pineau (d. 1754) as published in Mariette's Architecture à la Mode, circa 1730, their Jonesian or Palladian-revival brackets and oak-festooned shells derive from an 'antique' table in Kent's illustrations for Alexander Pope's translation of Homer's Odyssey, 1725 (see: M. Wilson, William Kent, London, 1984, fig. 34). Kent in the early 1730s designed a triumphal barge for Frederick Louis, Prince of Wales (d. 1752), which was also wreathed by oak-garlands, and whose stern was embellished with the Prince's scallop-framed crest supported by dolphins and mermaids (see: Wilson, fig. 51). Kent, who was Master Carpenter of King George II's Office of Works, was also involved in furnishing White Lodge, the Prince's villa at Kew. Kent's oak festooned pier-glass, thought to have been designed for this palace, is surmounted by Neptune's head and the Prince's crest within a double scallop-shell (see: Wilson, fig. 41). Both this pier-table and the pier-glass feature garlands with alternating full and empty acorn- cups, and in view of the related Neptune and Amphitrite masks etc., it is conceivable that this table also was designed for Frederick, Prince of Wales' Kew Palace. It is also likely to have been executed by Benjamin Goodison (d. 1767) of the Golden Spread Eagle' who held the post of court cabinet-maker.
The very fine agate slab relates to that of a similarly proportioned pier-table from Hinton House, Somerset, which dates from the 1740s (now in the Victoria & Albert Museum, see: Rococo, Victoria & Albert Exhibition Catalogue, 1984, L.10). Such slabs are also documented as being imported from Italy by Duke of Beaufort, (see: .....
The garland-bearing sirens correspond to those of side tables that incorporate youths embracing bacchic-masks, and were designed about 1730 by Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington, and the artist/architect William Kent (d. 1748) for the Earl's saloon at his Chiswick villa (see: T. Rosomon, ...). While this type of table relates to patterns in the French manner of N. Pineau (d. 1754) as published in Mariette's Architecture à la Mode, circa 1730, their Jonesian or Palladian-revival brackets and oak-festooned shells derive from an 'antique' table in Kent's illustrations for Alexander Pope's translation of Homer's Odyssey, 1725 (see: M. Wilson, William Kent, London, 1984, fig. 34). Kent in the early 1730s designed a triumphal barge for Frederick Louis, Prince of Wales (d. 1752), which was also wreathed by oak-garlands, and whose stern was embellished with the Prince's scallop-framed crest supported by dolphins and mermaids (see: Wilson, fig. 51). Kent, who was Master Carpenter of King George II's Office of Works, was also involved in furnishing White Lodge, the Prince's villa at Kew. Kent's oak festooned pier-glass, thought to have been designed for this palace, is surmounted by Neptune's head and the Prince's crest within a double scallop-shell (see: Wilson, fig. 41). Both this pier-table and the pier-glass feature garlands with alternating full and empty acorn- cups, and in view of the related Neptune and Amphitrite masks etc., it is conceivable that this table also was designed for Frederick, Prince of Wales' Kew Palace. It is also likely to have been executed by Benjamin Goodison (d. 1767) of the Golden Spread Eagle' who held the post of court cabinet-maker.
The very fine agate slab relates to that of a similarly proportioned pier-table from Hinton House, Somerset, which dates from the 1740s (now in the Victoria & Albert Museum, see: Rococo, Victoria & Albert Exhibition Catalogue, 1984, L.10). Such slabs are also documented as being imported from Italy by Duke of Beaufort, (see: .....