Lot Essay
The detailing on the lower part of the leg of this card-table closely relates to a suite supplied by William Hallett to Viscount Irwin, delivered on 9 August 1735. Shortly after Lord Irwin's death the following year the suite was taken to Temple Newsam, where it remained there until the dispersal sale in 1922 and was purchased by Frank Partridge. The suite was illustrated, along with the original invoice, in C. Gilbert, 'Newly-Discovered Furniture by William Hallett', The Connoisseur, December 1964, pp. 224-225.
The magnificent card-table, with golden ribbon-banded top of marble-figured walnut, is likely to have been commissioned for Shirburn Castle, Oxfordshire by George Parker, 2nd Earl of Macclesfield (d. 1764). Designed as a pier-table in the antique manner promoted by the Rome-trained artist/architect William Kent (d.1748) as 'Master Carpenter' of George II's Board of Works, its serpentined pillared legs are enriched with Roman acanthus issuing from voluted truss-brackets and terminate in 'Jupiter' eagle-claws. Related 'Roman' marble-table patterns were issued in William Jones's Gentlemen's or Builder's Companion, 1739, pl. 27.
The magnificent card-table, with golden ribbon-banded top of marble-figured walnut, is likely to have been commissioned for Shirburn Castle, Oxfordshire by George Parker, 2nd Earl of Macclesfield (d. 1764). Designed as a pier-table in the antique manner promoted by the Rome-trained artist/architect William Kent (d.1748) as 'Master Carpenter' of George II's Board of Works, its serpentined pillared legs are enriched with Roman acanthus issuing from voluted truss-brackets and terminate in 'Jupiter' eagle-claws. Related 'Roman' marble-table patterns were issued in William Jones's Gentlemen's or Builder's Companion, 1739, pl. 27.