LATE 18TH EARLY 19TH CENTURY

This console table, with its complex decorative scheme and graceful proportions, relates to a group of similarly-inlaid commodes and tables identified by Lucy Wood whose maker is not yet known. Its overall form and embellishment compares closely to a pair of console tables formerly in the collection at Lady Lever (see L. Wood, ibid, p. 175, fig. 166). A commode, veneered in the same combination of timbers as the table offered here, with nearly identical foliate scroll frieze decoration was sold anonymously; Sotheby's, London. 16 November 1984, lot 156. Additionally, Wood also points out that the leaf-tip frieze mounts which feature on the commode and this console table can also be found on a pair of marquetry side tables attributed to John Linnell in the collection of the Duke of Argyll at Inverary Castle (see H. Hayward and P. Kirkham, William and John Linnell, London, 1980, vol II, figs. 307-308). As such, the workshop which manufactured this table likely used the same supplier as Linnell.