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Lot Essay
A mahogany worktable made by William Vile for Queen Charlotte's private apartments at Buckingham House in 1763 with similar leaf-wrapped scroll feet is illustrated in A. Coleridge, Chippendale Furniture, London, 1968, ill. 17. Legs carved with related down-scrolling acanthus to the knees and almost identical up-scrolling foliage to the feet, a characteristic feature of Vile's work, can also be found on a triangular mahogany stand which is attributed to Vile (ibid., ill. 37).
The pier card-table's folding top, conceived in the George III 'antique' manner, is inlaid in the French fashion with a golden ribbon-fret forming Roman-mosaiced compartments. Its squared tablets at the candle-corners, are echoed on the reed-framed table-frieze. It is also embellished with richly 'ruffled' or 'raffled' Roman acanthus leaves, which wrap its elegantly serpentined and reed-framed legs and issue from the Ionic-voluted and plinth-supported feet. Matthias Lock's The Principles of Ornament, circa 1746, illustrates 'Raffle' patterns: a rococo leaf design consisting of three fronds, each of which is enriched by further divisions of each frond into further, smaller fronds to create a rich naturalistic and organic leaf-form (M. Heckscher, 'Lock and Copland: A Catalogue of the Engraved Ornament', Furniture History, 1979, pls. 40a-41b).
Related ribbon-inlaid card-tables were supplied in the late 1750s for the Gallery at Holkham Hall, Norfolk by the Soho firm of Messrs. Paul Saunders and George Bradshaw, who also supplied a set of chairs with related serpentine and voluted legs (A. Coleridge, Chippendale Furniture, London, 1968, figs. 371 and 379).
Many fine pieces of mid-18th Century case furniture, and particularly card-tables have 'H. TIBATS' stamped on their concertina-action hinges, including the card-table, lot 37 in this sale and one in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Tibats was clearly an important source of iron fittings and was probably based in London or Birmingham (P. Thornton, 'A Signed Hinge', Furniture History, Leeds, 1966, pp.44-45, pl. XXIII).
The pier card-table's folding top, conceived in the George III 'antique' manner, is inlaid in the French fashion with a golden ribbon-fret forming Roman-mosaiced compartments. Its squared tablets at the candle-corners, are echoed on the reed-framed table-frieze. It is also embellished with richly 'ruffled' or 'raffled' Roman acanthus leaves, which wrap its elegantly serpentined and reed-framed legs and issue from the Ionic-voluted and plinth-supported feet. Matthias Lock's The Principles of Ornament, circa 1746, illustrates 'Raffle' patterns: a rococo leaf design consisting of three fronds, each of which is enriched by further divisions of each frond into further, smaller fronds to create a rich naturalistic and organic leaf-form (M. Heckscher, 'Lock and Copland: A Catalogue of the Engraved Ornament', Furniture History, 1979, pls. 40a-41b).
Related ribbon-inlaid card-tables were supplied in the late 1750s for the Gallery at Holkham Hall, Norfolk by the Soho firm of Messrs. Paul Saunders and George Bradshaw, who also supplied a set of chairs with related serpentine and voluted legs (A. Coleridge, Chippendale Furniture, London, 1968, figs. 371 and 379).
Many fine pieces of mid-18th Century case furniture, and particularly card-tables have 'H. TIBATS' stamped on their concertina-action hinges, including the card-table, lot 37 in this sale and one in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Tibats was clearly an important source of iron fittings and was probably based in London or Birmingham (P. Thornton, 'A Signed Hinge', Furniture History, Leeds, 1966, pp.44-45, pl. XXIII).