IN THE MANNER OF SEDDON, SONS & SHACKLETON

Details

A PAIR OF GEORGE III POLYCHROME-DECORATED SATINWOOD CARD-TABLES
In the manner of Seddon, Sons & Shackleton
Each of D-shape outline, crossbanded overall in rosewood, the hinged top with a yellow border painted with trails of ribbon-tied Morning Glory and ranunculus, edged with tulipwood banding, enclosing a green baize-lined playing-surface, above a boxwood-inlaid frieze, on square tapering legs, the underside of one with fragmentary Lewes(?) depository label '...AYOR 22/8/65', the underside of the other inscribed in chalk 'MAJOR', refreshments to decoration
29½ in. (75 cm.) high; 37 in. (94 cm.) wide; 17¼ in. (44 cm.) deep (2)

Provenance

Anonymous sale, Sotheby's London, 25 April 1986, lot 63.

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis

Lot Essay

With their polychrome 'flowered' borders painted onto a rich ground of West Indian satinwood, these card-tables share much in common with the documented work of Seddon, Sons & Shackleton. This type of flowered border, including convulvulus featured on the pair of card-tables and matching Pembroke table supplied to Richard Hall Clarke for Bridwell House, Devon and delivered by Seddon, Sons and Shackleton on 5 April 1793 at a cost of £25. Similarly, the 'ivory' ground for the trailing flowers can also be seen under the peacock-feathered borders of a card- table supplied by Seddon to D. Tupper for Hauteville House, Guernsey. These two commissions are discussed by C. Gilbert in 'Seddon, Sons & Shackleton', Furniture History, 1997, pp. 1-29, figs. 3 and 5-6.

In their overall design, this date is further confirmed as they correspond closely to a Gillows design for a card-table, dated August 1794, but described as being executed in mahogany with kingwood crossbanding (L. Boynton, Gillow Furniture Designs 1760-1800, Royston, 1995, no. 7).

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