IN THE MANNER OF WILLIAM KENT, EARLY 20TH CENTURY

The marble-topped table is designed in the George II Roman fashion promoted by the Rome-trained artist William Kent (d.1748) and inspired by Ovids Metamorphoses or Loves of the Gods. The triumph of the Nature deity Venus is evoked by an oak-festooned Venus shell tied by a wave-scrolled ribbon to truss-scrolled pilasters bearing dolphin scale imbrications. The pattern, invented around 1730 for Houghton Hall, Norfolk was popularised by inclusion in Margaret Jourdains, The Work of William Kent, 1948 (fig. 138). Jourdain adopted the pen-name of Lenygon, following her employment in 1911 as art correspondent for the London decorators and cabinet-makers Messrs Lenygon & Morant, at a time that they were refurbishing a number of houses, where Kent had been employed. It is possible that this table is one of their manufactures.