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Lot Essay
This fine Italian specimen marble table top is characteristic of the taste for Italian slabs, often collected by English gentlemen whilst undertaking their 'Grand Tour' of Europe. In the eighteenth century, Palladian architects were influenced by the Italian fashion for marble topped pier tables. Many of these items were ordered by English collectors and returned to their homeland where they had the bases made for these highly prized tops.
One of these patrons of the Italian workshops was the connoisseur Patrick Home (d.1808) of Wedderburn Castle and Paxton House, Scotland, who appears to have purchased a quantity of high quality tops in around 1771 in the first year of his Grand Tour. A very similar table on a base made by the Edinburgh cabinet-maker William Trotter is illustrated in F. Bamford, A Dictionary of Edinburgh Furniture Makers, 1660-1840, Furniture History Society, 1983, pl. 55A. A further, similar table is believed to have been acquired by Edward, Viscount Lascelles (d.1814) for Harewood House, Yorkshire and subsequently sold, The Humphrey Whitbread Collection, Christie's London, 5 April 2001, lot 412.
One of these patrons of the Italian workshops was the connoisseur Patrick Home (d.1808) of Wedderburn Castle and Paxton House, Scotland, who appears to have purchased a quantity of high quality tops in around 1771 in the first year of his Grand Tour. A very similar table on a base made by the Edinburgh cabinet-maker William Trotter is illustrated in F. Bamford, A Dictionary of Edinburgh Furniture Makers, 1660-1840, Furniture History Society, 1983, pl. 55A. A further, similar table is believed to have been acquired by Edward, Viscount Lascelles (d.1814) for Harewood House, Yorkshire and subsequently sold, The Humphrey Whitbread Collection, Christie's London, 5 April 2001, lot 412.