THE 18TH CENTURY ELEMENTS REASSEMBLED AFTER THE HOUSE SALE

Details

A GEORGE II GILTWOOD AND BLACK AND GILT-LACQUER CONSOLE TABLE
THE 18TH CENTURY ELEMENTS REASSEMBLED AFTER THE HOUSE SALE
The rounded rectangular Chinese black and gilt-lacquer top with an English moulded japanned edge, above a moulded and fluted frieze carved with scrolling foliage, with an eagle central support, on a shaped panelled plinth, the top converted in the 18th century from a Chinese coffer lid, regilt
35 in. (89 cm.) high; 40½ in. (103 cm.) wide; 22 in. (56 cm.) deep

Provenance

The Chichester Family, Hall, Barnstaple, Devon; sold Sotheby's house sale, 11 November 1996, lots 58 (the eagle), 159A (the top) and 679 (the frieze).

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium, which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

The current house at Hall, the seat of the land-owning Chichester family lies above the Taw valley, inland from Barnstaple in North Devon, and was built by Robert Chichester (1804-1882) on the site of the medieval house. He employed the architect Philip Hardwick to build a comfortable and grand country house in the sixteenth-century style with a centre block containing large spacious reception and family rooms for entertaining, flanked by a library and bachelor wing to one side and the other wing with domestic offices around a courtyard. At one end of the house is a great Gothic hall with minstrel's gallery and stencilled walls. Clearly inspired by his antiquarian house, Robert Chichester was an early purchasor of 'antiques' in the galleries of Wardour Street in the 1840s and 50s. The present lot may represent such an object, as hardly anything from Hall was thrown out or sold once it had outlived fashion or usefulness.

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