CIRCA 1745

The bold architectural form of this 'Kentian' styled table is similar in design to five mahogany and parcel-gilt side chairs in the Lady Lever Art Gallery, illustrated in P. Macquoid, Lady Lever Art Gallery Collection, 1929, vol.III, pl.60, no. 208. The chairs share the characteristic shell-centered Vitruvian scrolled frieze and the unusual feature of fluted term-form tapered legs as found on the present table. Recent research by Lucy Wood has suggested that these chairs may have been supplied by William Hallett to Thomas Coke, First Earl of Leicester (1697-1759) for Holkham Hall, Norfolk. William Hallett is known to have supplied furniture to Holkham Hall between 1737-1752, records of which are published in G. Beard and C. Gilbert, Dictionary of English Furniture Makers, 1660-1840, 1986, p.388. A single side chair closely matching the Lady Lever chairs but with a plain frieze was sold anonymously, Sotheby's London, 10 July 1998, lot 8. Another chair of very similar design forms part of the furnishings of Spencer House, London, illustrated in J. Friedman, Spencer House, Chronicles of a Great London Mansion, London, 1993, p.191, pl.XXIII.