CIRCA 1740

The mottled marble has its sideboard-table frame richly sculpted in the George II Roman fashion evoking ancient fertility and agricultural deities. Venus shells wreath its echinous-molded cornice above a shell cartouche, which is antique-fretted in the friezes ribbon band of Roman foliage and bordered by a Pan reed that is enriched with pearls. Pearled medallion cartouches in Roman foliage issue from the voluted trusses of the columnar legs, whose lion-paws recall the harvest triumphs of the wine-deity Bacchus. The ribbon-fret reflects French antique ornament popularized around 1700 by the engraved works of Daniel Marot (d.1752); while the shell-enriched cornice combined with ribbon-fretted frieze features on Georgian sideboard-tables supplied to Hagley Hall, Worcestershire (see O. Brackett, Thomas Chippendale, c.1924 p. 210). It is unusual to find the feature of a fretwork band on a table of this early date as this is typically associated with designs from the mid-18th century. Interestingly, the pierced design recalls earlier naturalistic strapwork patterns executed in marquetry rather than the more typical Chinese or gothic patterns promoted by Thomas Chippendale in his Director (see for instance a pair of Queen Anne chairs sold from an American Private Collection, Christie's, New York, 16 April 2002, lot 10).