.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
This table is recorded as the 'Wainscot Entrance Hall Table with carved legs, rail, etc - 20.0.0' in John Williams' Invoice to 'His Grace The Duke of Bedford', dated 5 Nov. 1814 and is also recorded as the 'Massive Oak Carved Table Marble Slab Top' in the Hall in the '1839' Inventory.
The Endsleigh sideboard-table was designed by the architect Jeffry Wyatt (d.1840) and executed in oak to harmonise with the oak-beamed and panelled banqueting or entrance hall that he had designed for John, 6th Duke of Bedford in 1810. The table was designed in an antiquarian style to support a marble slab from one of the Duke's Devonshire mines. The marble was probably selected to match the marble used on the fireplaces at Endsleigh. J. Kendall is recorded sending an invoice to William Walker, the Clerk of Works, dated 1813 for 'Dartmoor Granite'. It is interesting to note on Jeffry Wyatt's original design for the table that he inscribed 'the marble slab is at Endsleigh from which the dimensions can be taken'. The table's leg design, with voluted truss columns wrapped by Roman acanthus and terminating in bacchic lion paws, was derived from the 'Roman Table' patterns with marble slabs invented for the early 18th century Palladian villa. In particular they relate to that of a mahogany 'Pier Table' pattern in William Jones's, The Gentleman or Builder's Companion, 1739 (pl.27). However, in place of a Vitruvian waved-scrolled frieze, Wyatt introduced a foliated basket-weave that evokes the origins of the history of the Corinthian order-of-architecture as deriving from an acanthus-wrapped basket. The legs were stretcher-tied in 17th century fashion and provide a tray for a wine-cistern, which could also serve as a jardiniere. Above this table was placed a marble bust of Francis, 5th Duke of Bedford (d.1802) on a truss-scrolled bracket; while the accompany antiquarian chairs designed by Wyatt fused Grecian and 'Elizabethan' elements and bore escutcheons displaying the Russell coat-of-arms.
John Williams (d.1819) is recorded in G. Beard and C. Gilbert, Dictionary of English Furniture Makers, 1660-1840, FHS, 1986, as working in the parish of St. Mary Major, Exeter, Devon between 1812-19.
The table is illustrated in an oil of the Hall by Lady Ela Russell, dated 1896.
The Endsleigh sideboard-table was designed by the architect Jeffry Wyatt (d.1840) and executed in oak to harmonise with the oak-beamed and panelled banqueting or entrance hall that he had designed for John, 6th Duke of Bedford in 1810. The table was designed in an antiquarian style to support a marble slab from one of the Duke's Devonshire mines. The marble was probably selected to match the marble used on the fireplaces at Endsleigh. J. Kendall is recorded sending an invoice to William Walker, the Clerk of Works, dated 1813 for 'Dartmoor Granite'. It is interesting to note on Jeffry Wyatt's original design for the table that he inscribed 'the marble slab is at Endsleigh from which the dimensions can be taken'. The table's leg design, with voluted truss columns wrapped by Roman acanthus and terminating in bacchic lion paws, was derived from the 'Roman Table' patterns with marble slabs invented for the early 18th century Palladian villa. In particular they relate to that of a mahogany 'Pier Table' pattern in William Jones's, The Gentleman or Builder's Companion, 1739 (pl.27). However, in place of a Vitruvian waved-scrolled frieze, Wyatt introduced a foliated basket-weave that evokes the origins of the history of the Corinthian order-of-architecture as deriving from an acanthus-wrapped basket. The legs were stretcher-tied in 17th century fashion and provide a tray for a wine-cistern, which could also serve as a jardiniere. Above this table was placed a marble bust of Francis, 5th Duke of Bedford (d.1802) on a truss-scrolled bracket; while the accompany antiquarian chairs designed by Wyatt fused Grecian and 'Elizabethan' elements and bore escutcheons displaying the Russell coat-of-arms.
John Williams (d.1819) is recorded in G. Beard and C. Gilbert, Dictionary of English Furniture Makers, 1660-1840, FHS, 1986, as working in the parish of St. Mary Major, Exeter, Devon between 1812-19.
The table is illustrated in an oil of the Hall by Lady Ela Russell, dated 1896.