Lot Essay
The monumental tables furnishing the Livery Hall at the Goldsmiths' Company, London were designed in the Grecian 'antique' manner by Philip Hardwick as part of his re-building of the Hall in the early 1830's. The tables' plinth-supported and truss-scrolled trestles evolved from the type of marble antiquity such as the palm-flowered and lion-pawed seat drawn in Rome by the architect Charles Heathcote Tatham (d.1842) and illustrated in his Etchings of Ancient Ornamental Architecture, 1799. A centre-table likely to have been executed under Tatham's direction, was supplied for the London mansion/museum of the connoisseur Thomas Hope (d.1832) and illustrated in Hope's Household Furniture and Interior Decoration, 1807 (pl.12, nos. 6 and 7).
This type of architectural table pattern enjoyed enduring popularity since it was subsequently re-issued in George Smith's Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Guide, 1826, and clearly provided the inspiration for Hardwick when he was employed after the demolition of the existing Goldsmiths' Hall in the 1820's.
This type of architectural table pattern enjoyed enduring popularity since it was subsequently re-issued in George Smith's Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Guide, 1826, and clearly provided the inspiration for Hardwick when he was employed after the demolition of the existing Goldsmiths' Hall in the 1820's.