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Lot Essay
These tables, of elliptic 'Roman-medallion' form with taper-hermed legs, are designed in the George III 'antique' fashion introduced in the 1770s and later popularised by Messrs A. Hepplewhite & Co.'s Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Guide, 1788. The inlaid tops' sunflowered and scallop-rayed demi-medallions are festooned with strings of laurels and palm-flowers issuing from Roman acanthus, as featured in pilaster ornament in R. and J. Adam's Works in Architecture, 1774; while their frieze wreaths of laurels issuing from palms relate to the Roman fashion introduced to Dublin by William Moore, who had trained in London in the 1770s with Messrs Ince and Mayhew.
The present tables are reputed to have been commissioned by Alexander Monro of Auchinbowie, Scotland, and were originally provided en suite with an oval Pembroke table, whose frieze was inlaid with sacred urns in keeping with the Roman 'Etruscan' or 'Columbarium' fashion celebrated by the Adams' Works in Architecture. A Pembroke table, inlaid with related ornament, is among furniture thought to have been acquired in the 1770s from the Marlborough cabinet-maker Henry Hill (d. 1778) (L. Wood, Catalogue of Commodes, London, 1994, p. 67, fig. 47).
The present tables are reputed to have been commissioned by Alexander Monro of Auchinbowie, Scotland, and were originally provided en suite with an oval Pembroke table, whose frieze was inlaid with sacred urns in keeping with the Roman 'Etruscan' or 'Columbarium' fashion celebrated by the Adams' Works in Architecture. A Pembroke table, inlaid with related ornament, is among furniture thought to have been acquired in the 1770s from the Marlborough cabinet-maker Henry Hill (d. 1778) (L. Wood, Catalogue of Commodes, London, 1994, p. 67, fig. 47).