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Lot Essay
The sideboard-table, sometimes referred to as a 'table-sideboard' in the 19th Century, has a hollowed plinth for a sarcophagus wine-cistern, and with its palm-wrapped trusses and vine-twined thyrsus on the cutlery-drawer, reflects the robust 'antique' style popularized by George Smith's The Cabinet-Maker's Guide, London, 1826, (E. Joy, Pictorial Dictionary of British 19th Century Furniture Design, Woodbridge, 1977, p. 428). Some of Smith's designs recall the work of George Bullock (d. 1818), and the bacchic trophy relates to decorative bronze bas-reliefs in Bullock's antique manner.
Related scrolled serpentine legs appear on furniture supplied to George Home of Paxton, Berwickshire by William Trotter. Trotter described them in a letter to Home's wife dated 11 December 1813: 'I mean them to be supported in front by richly carved legs in the form of Trusses - and pilasters behind - but each to have a rosewood shelf under' (F. Bamford, A Dictionary of Edinburgh Furniture Makers, Leeds, 1983, p. 119, pls. 54B and 56).
A sideboard with similar vine-twined thyrsus mount was sold by The Viscount Petersham, Christie's London, 17 November 1988, lot 162.
Related scrolled serpentine legs appear on furniture supplied to George Home of Paxton, Berwickshire by William Trotter. Trotter described them in a letter to Home's wife dated 11 December 1813: 'I mean them to be supported in front by richly carved legs in the form of Trusses - and pilasters behind - but each to have a rosewood shelf under' (F. Bamford, A Dictionary of Edinburgh Furniture Makers, Leeds, 1983, p. 119, pls. 54B and 56).
A sideboard with similar vine-twined thyrsus mount was sold by The Viscount Petersham, Christie's London, 17 November 1988, lot 162.