拍品專文
This multi-purpose table is designed in the George II 'antique' manner, with its reed-cornered legs terminating in whorled feet wrapped by Roman acanthus. The top is fitted with a hinged, spring-operated and ratchet-support 'desk' for music or reading, together with sliding trays at the sides and circular brass 'conveniences for candlesticks' turned under the front corners. The writing-drawer, with leathered slide, conceals a small pen-tray drawer opening from the right side. As appropriate for the table's additional role as a tea-tray stand, it is fitted with a 'Chinese' pattern escutcheon-plate representing a pagoda in a fret-railed garden. This 'picturesque' handle features in a page of circa 1765-1770 of the Brassfounders Catalogue at the Victoria and Albert Museum (no. 9859), illustrated in R. Gentle and R. Feild, Domestic Metalwork 1640-1820, London, 1994, p. 216, pl. 7.
The metamorphic nature of this table is reminiscent of the work of the Neuwied cabinet-maker, Abraham Roentgen (d.1793), who was working with a number of London craftsmen including William Gomm (Gern) of Newcastle House, St. John's Square (The Dictionary of English Furniture Makers 1660-1840, Leeds, 1986 p.349). Its involuted feet also relate to that of a richly carved and brass-enriched sideboard-table that was formerly at Vale Royal, Cheshire (C. Gilbert and T. Murdoch, ed., John Channon and Brass-Inlaid Furniture, London, 1993, pl. XIV-XVI).
The metamorphic nature of this table is reminiscent of the work of the Neuwied cabinet-maker, Abraham Roentgen (d.1793), who was working with a number of London craftsmen including William Gomm (Gern) of Newcastle House, St. John's Square (The Dictionary of English Furniture Makers 1660-1840, Leeds, 1986 p.349). Its involuted feet also relate to that of a richly carved and brass-enriched sideboard-table that was formerly at Vale Royal, Cheshire (C. Gilbert and T. Murdoch, ed., John Channon and Brass-Inlaid Furniture, London, 1993, pl. XIV-XVI).