Lot Essay
The unusual table is closely related to a documented octagonal-topped example supplied by London cabinet-maker William Masters to the 2nd Duke of Atholl for Atholl House (now Blair Castle), Perthshire in 1755 (illustrated in A. Coleridge, Chippendale Furniture, New York, 1968, fig. 398). While the bases are closely related, the difference lies in the flattened squared feet on this example. Another, with a virtually identical base with rectangular lozenge-form top from the collection of Marjorie Wiggin Prescott, was sold Christie's New York, 31 January 1981, lot 286 and is illustrated in C. Claxton Stevens and S. Whittington, 18th Century English Furniture: The Norman Adams Collection, Woodbridge, 1983, p. 297. A table with a very similar base but without stretchers was sold from the Michael Lipitch Gallery, Sotheby's London, 22 May 1998, lot 217. Another is illustrated in F.W. Hinckley, Metropolitan Furniture of the Georgian Years, New York, 1988, p. 104, fig. 155. A further example was sold Christie's New York, 12 April 1996, lot 99.