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Lot Essay
This sideboard-table is designed in the George II 'picturesque' manner with its fretted shell and fruit-festooned garland issued from winged dragon supports. Its overall form derives from patterns published by Batty Langley in The City and Country Builder's and Workman's Treasury of Designs, 1740, notably plate CXLV (reproduced here). The airy, free-flowing ornamentation and lighter curvaceous framework reflect the teaching of French artisan Hubert Gravelot and the St.Martin's Lane Academy who promoted the French rococo style in England. In fact, Langley was known to have pirated designs of French artisans published in the rococo style. Other similar designs appear in The Gentlemen's or Builders' Companion published by architect William Jones in 1739 (see P.Ward-Jackson, English Furniture Designs of the Eighteenth Century, London, 1958, pl.22).
A more boldly rendered piece with eagle supports and naturalistic ornamentation was executed as early as circa 1725 for the Earl of Litchfield at Ditchley Park, Oxfordshire (see D.Fitz-Gerald, Georgian Furniture, London, 1969, no.21). The table frame, displaying a scagliola top with the Earl's coat-of-arms, and now at the Victoria and Albert Museum, has been attributed to Henry Flitcroft, who was working at Ditchley. A further table with slightly more florid details on rocaille-carved cabriole legs, also from Ditchley Park, was sold from 'A Private Collection', Sotheby's New York, 28-29 October 1988, lot 476 ($209,000).
The table, with its fearsome winged dragon uprights, relates most closely to a pair supplied by the carver and gilder James Pascall (d.1754) in 1745 as part of a large commission for Henry, 7th Viscount Irwin, at Temple Newsam, Yorkshire. The tables were executed for the Picture Gallery and appear on an invoice entry dated August 16, 1745 ('two Rich Carved table frames for Marble Slabbs Gilt in burnished gold, this artikle very cheap they ar Rich and well done £42.00.00) and were purchased in 1922 by the Duke of Roxburghe for Floors Castle, Scotland where they remain today (see C.Gilbert, Furniture at Temple Newsam House and Lotherton Hall, vol.III, Leeds, 1998, p.717, fig.45). A console table with similar scroll dragon supports is illustrated in situ in the Saloon at Ramsbury Manor, Wiltshire (see J. Cornforth, Inspiration of the Past, Middlesex, 1985, p.170, fig.161). Another table with scroll-carved frieze, oversized central shell enclosed by scrolls and profusely carved cabriole legs is illustrated in F. Lenygon, The Decoration and Furniture of English Mansions during the seventeen and Eighteenth Centuries, London, 1909, pl.63. Another pair was sold from 'A Private Collection', Sotheby's New York, 28-29 October 1988, lot 474 ($528,000).
Abundance is represented in the richly carved fruited swags with bacchic grapes that make this an appropriate sideboard table for a dining room. These riches of fruit may pay tribute to Ceres, the goddess of agriculture, who would have been drawn in her chariot led by dragons in search of her daughter Proserpine who was abducted into the underworld by Pluto, as suggested by the large scallop shell that embellishes the frieze.
This table once belonged in the collection of Georges Lurcy, whose celebrated collection of French furniture was sold at Parke-Bernet Galleries in a two-day sale, 8-9 December 1957. In the words of Alfred M. Frankfurter, then editor of Artnews, Mr. Lurcy's collection reflected the 'taste, imagination and personality' of this successful banker and respected art collector. This table was not in the sale but was rather presented as a gift to a colleague whose widow, in turn, presented it to the present owner.
A more boldly rendered piece with eagle supports and naturalistic ornamentation was executed as early as circa 1725 for the Earl of Litchfield at Ditchley Park, Oxfordshire (see D.Fitz-Gerald, Georgian Furniture, London, 1969, no.21). The table frame, displaying a scagliola top with the Earl's coat-of-arms, and now at the Victoria and Albert Museum, has been attributed to Henry Flitcroft, who was working at Ditchley. A further table with slightly more florid details on rocaille-carved cabriole legs, also from Ditchley Park, was sold from 'A Private Collection', Sotheby's New York, 28-29 October 1988, lot 476 ($209,000).
The table, with its fearsome winged dragon uprights, relates most closely to a pair supplied by the carver and gilder James Pascall (d.1754) in 1745 as part of a large commission for Henry, 7th Viscount Irwin, at Temple Newsam, Yorkshire. The tables were executed for the Picture Gallery and appear on an invoice entry dated August 16, 1745 ('two Rich Carved table frames for Marble Slabbs Gilt in burnished gold, this artikle very cheap they ar Rich and well done £42.00.00) and were purchased in 1922 by the Duke of Roxburghe for Floors Castle, Scotland where they remain today (see C.Gilbert, Furniture at Temple Newsam House and Lotherton Hall, vol.III, Leeds, 1998, p.717, fig.45). A console table with similar scroll dragon supports is illustrated in situ in the Saloon at Ramsbury Manor, Wiltshire (see J. Cornforth, Inspiration of the Past, Middlesex, 1985, p.170, fig.161). Another table with scroll-carved frieze, oversized central shell enclosed by scrolls and profusely carved cabriole legs is illustrated in F. Lenygon, The Decoration and Furniture of English Mansions during the seventeen and Eighteenth Centuries, London, 1909, pl.63. Another pair was sold from 'A Private Collection', Sotheby's New York, 28-29 October 1988, lot 474 ($528,000).
Abundance is represented in the richly carved fruited swags with bacchic grapes that make this an appropriate sideboard table for a dining room. These riches of fruit may pay tribute to Ceres, the goddess of agriculture, who would have been drawn in her chariot led by dragons in search of her daughter Proserpine who was abducted into the underworld by Pluto, as suggested by the large scallop shell that embellishes the frieze.
This table once belonged in the collection of Georges Lurcy, whose celebrated collection of French furniture was sold at Parke-Bernet Galleries in a two-day sale, 8-9 December 1957. In the words of Alfred M. Frankfurter, then editor of Artnews, Mr. Lurcy's collection reflected the 'taste, imagination and personality' of this successful banker and respected art collector. This table was not in the sale but was rather presented as a gift to a colleague whose widow, in turn, presented it to the present owner.