EARLY 19TH CENTURY

The library-table, with Grecian-black inlay and Egyptian sunburst bas-reliefs, is conceived in the early 19th century antique manner. The pattern with its reeded and lion-footed pillars capped by lion-headed tablets features in an 1804 design for an Egyptian style sideboard-table issued in George Smith's Collection of Designs for Household Furniture and Interior Decoration, 1808 (pl. 92). The Smith design is likely to have inspired a related sideboard-table formerly at Bramham Park, Yorkshire, which is thought to have been among the furniture introduced in 1814 and has been linked with a payment of £21 made to the York cabinet-maker, John Bellerby Senior (d. 1827) (illustrated in situ, A. Oswald, 'Bramham Park-II', Country Life, 27 April 1958, p. 402, fig. 6 and sold anonymously, Christie's, New York, 23 April 1988, lot 158).
A related table, attributed to John Bellerby, was sold Christie’s, London, 18 November 1993, lot 197 and again Sotheby's, London, 8 December 2004, lot 49.