AN EBONIZED WOOD AND CALAMANDER TABLE, CIRCA 1880

One of the principal late 19th-century English furniture makers based outside of London, James Lamb of Manchester was highly regarded for creating artistic furniture of excellent quality and design. Lamb regularly commissioned leading British designers, many of whom were strongly influenced by the Aesthetic Movement. Their more abstract and pared down designs appealed to the newly minted wealth in Manchester and demonstrated that a provincial firm such as Lamb was capable of creating progressive furniture comparable in design and material to what was being made in London at the time. James Lamb exhibited at several international exhibitions and won a gold medal at the 1878 Paris International Exhibition.
The center table typifies the sophisticated design and rich use of materials that brought James Lamb wider acclaim during the late 1870s and 1880s. The effect of the ebonized understructure recalls the celebrated 1867 "spider-leg" center table by the English designer, E. W. Godwin, which Clarence Cook's popular style manual, House Beautiful, introduced to the United States. James Lamb's original furniture designs attracted American attention as well, including the New York firm of Herter Brothers.