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Lot Essay
THE DESIGN
The table's pattern, with central mask festooned with garlands suspended from the voluted trusses of canted herm legs, featured in an engraving of a sideboard-table designed in the 1730s by William Kent for Houghton Hall, Norfolk, and published in John Vardy's Some Designs of Mr. Inigo Jones and Mr. William Kent, 1744, pl. 41. A Flora mask also featured on Kent's table designed in the 1730s for Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington's villa at Chiswick (ibid., pl. 40).
THE ATTRIBUTION
A pair of closely related 'Flora' tables was supplied to Charles Powlett, 5th Duke of Bolton (d. 1765) for either Grosvenor Square or Hackwood Park, Hampshire (sold Christie's London, 8 July 1999, lot 53). The latter's design was attributed to the architect John Vardy (d. 1765) and the superb quality of the carving attributed to his brother, Thomas Vardy. Vardy designed a new house at Hackwood, Hampshire, for the Duke and several designs for furniture survive as well. The Bolton tables also featured a Flora mask in the centre of the frieze, guilloche-filled legs, siena marble top and extended acanthus leaves reaching from the foot and top of the legs.
The table's pattern, with central mask festooned with garlands suspended from the voluted trusses of canted herm legs, featured in an engraving of a sideboard-table designed in the 1730s by William Kent for Houghton Hall, Norfolk, and published in John Vardy's Some Designs of Mr. Inigo Jones and Mr. William Kent, 1744, pl. 41. A Flora mask also featured on Kent's table designed in the 1730s for Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington's villa at Chiswick (ibid., pl. 40).
THE ATTRIBUTION
A pair of closely related 'Flora' tables was supplied to Charles Powlett, 5th Duke of Bolton (d. 1765) for either Grosvenor Square or Hackwood Park, Hampshire (sold Christie's London, 8 July 1999, lot 53). The latter's design was attributed to the architect John Vardy (d. 1765) and the superb quality of the carving attributed to his brother, Thomas Vardy. Vardy designed a new house at Hackwood, Hampshire, for the Duke and several designs for furniture survive as well. The Bolton tables also featured a Flora mask in the centre of the frieze, guilloche-filled legs, siena marble top and extended acanthus leaves reaching from the foot and top of the legs.