MID-18TH CENTURY

This Irish side table has many of the characteristics that set Irish furniture apart from its English prototypes. Designed in the 'Roman' manner, with a wooden top rather than a marble top, the legs are carved with acanthus that continues across into the apron and right down the legs, while the C-scrolls are particularly elongated. The Bacchic lion-paw feet are squared in the Irish manner, while the apron is carved with eagle-heads issuing from acanthus and holding flowers and acorns. The carving on the apron is carefully outlined with a pin-pricked line, an extremely unusual feature, but one that relates to the more common Irish practice of dotted lozenge trellis covering the plain areas of the apron (see lot 70 in this sale). Similar eagle-heads issuing from acanthus and holding wheat ears, appear on the apron of a mahogany side table at Ardress House, Co. Armagh, Northern Ireland.