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Lot Essay
The lozenge parquetry design of this serpentine top is characteristic of the work of Henry Hill of Marlborough (1741-1777). Hill courted many significant West Country clients, including the Duke of Somerset at Maiden Bradley, the Earl of Radnor at Longford Castle and Lord Methuen at Corsham Court, Wiltshire. Included in the furniture Hill supplied to Paul Methuen in the 1760's and 1770's are two mahogany Pembroke tables whose tops display similar large-scale lozenge parquetry (L. Wood, Catalogue of Commodes, London, 1994, pp. 67-68, figs. 48-49). Another local house, Littlecote, also contains a supper table and a card table attributed to Hill, each displaying this characteristic surface pattern (ibid., p. 69, figs. 51-52).
A pier table, possibly supplied by Mayhew and Ince to the Earl of Kerry circa 1770 for his residence at Portman Square, which features a diagonally-veneered top reminscent of the current lot's parquetry design, is now in the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Merseyside (C. Cator, 'The Earl of Kerry and Mayhew and Ince - The Idlest Ostentation', Furniture History Society Journal, Vol. XXVI, 1990, fig. 2). A tripod table, attributed to Mayhew and Ince, featuring a tilt-top patterned with Chinese paling was sold anonymously, Christie's, London, 23 November 2006, lot 41 (£69,600).
A pier table, possibly supplied by Mayhew and Ince to the Earl of Kerry circa 1770 for his residence at Portman Square, which features a diagonally-veneered top reminscent of the current lot's parquetry design, is now in the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Merseyside (C. Cator, 'The Earl of Kerry and Mayhew and Ince - The Idlest Ostentation', Furniture History Society Journal, Vol. XXVI, 1990, fig. 2). A tripod table, attributed to Mayhew and Ince, featuring a tilt-top patterned with Chinese paling was sold anonymously, Christie's, London, 23 November 2006, lot 41 (£69,600).