THIRD QUARTER 18TH CENTURY

Rex Britcher, after his spell in the army in the late 1940s often visited Ireland with his friend, George Furlong. While George, as Director of the National Gallery of Ireland, concentrated his educated eye on the acquisition of pre-eminent Old Masters, Rex was drawn to the decorative arts and furniture in particular. Many of his acquisitions were gathered from the dealers John and Putzel Hunt, Harry Wine in Grafton Street and from many Irish house sales, such as the Kirkwood sale at Collinstown Park, Clondalkin in the 1950s. Their friends, Harold Nicholson, Vita Sackville-West, the novelist Ivy Compton-Burnett and many others would gather at Rex and George's house in Thurloe Street. Much of his collection was sold at Christie's South Kensingon, 25 September 1996.

A closely related tripod table, formerly in the collection of J. S. Sykes, whose collection was formed with the aid of the historian R. W. Symonds, was sold anonymously, Phillips, London, 12 June 2001, lot 57 (£85,000).