Lot Essay
Fluted 'altar' plinths for Grecian 'water-fountain' urns cap these sideboard pedestals, whose robust bronzed sculptures reflect the early 19th century 'antique' fashion. Here Venus is recalled by her 'fountain' attribute which figures bas-relief panels, that are framed by ray-striated parquetry, and label the 'commode' doors of their architectonic 'tablet' and herm-tapered facades; while Egyptian palm-flowered and reeded pillars are incorporated in their lion monopodia, which evoke the triumphal feasts of the wine-deity Dionysus /Bacchus.
Messrs Gillow & Co. of London and Lancaster, leading manufacturers of superb mahogany dining-room furniture, had long favoured motifs such as Chippendale's 'French' hollow-cornered tablets; while the lion monopodia coupled with palm-flowered capitals reflects the influence of the court architect James Wyatt (d. 1813) on their firm's work and featured on their marble-topped table supplied invoiced in 1803 for Broughton Hall, Yorkshire (see S. E. Stuart, Gillows of Lancaster and London, 2 vols. Woodbridge, 2008, vol. II, pl. 642).
Messrs Gillow & Co. of London and Lancaster, leading manufacturers of superb mahogany dining-room furniture, had long favoured motifs such as Chippendale's 'French' hollow-cornered tablets; while the lion monopodia coupled with palm-flowered capitals reflects the influence of the court architect James Wyatt (d. 1813) on their firm's work and featured on their marble-topped table supplied invoiced in 1803 for Broughton Hall, Yorkshire (see S. E. Stuart, Gillows of Lancaster and London, 2 vols. Woodbridge, 2008, vol. II, pl. 642).