CIRCA 1760, POSSIBLY BY WRIGHT AND ELWICK, AFTER A DESIGN BY THOMAS CHIPPENDALE

This serving-table, unusually executed in burr-yew and sabicu, is almost identical to a mahogany serving-table at Dumfries House, supplied to William, 5th Earl of Dumfries (d. 1768) by the Edinburgh cabinet-maker Alexander Peter for the Dining-Room (see Dumfries House, A Chippendale Commission, volume I, Christie's catalogue, 12 July 2007, pp. 232-235 lot 71 and invoiced by Peter on 8 September 1759 for £7. The latter table followed exactly a design by Thomas Chippendale published in his Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director, London, 1754-1762, pl. 33 (3rd ed.). The slight differences between the present table and the Dumfries table include a variant on the frieze lozenge pattern and a slightly more elaborate version of scrolled angle-bracket seen on the present table. Whilst Chippendale's published patterns were often copied by the London cabinet-making trade and beyond, it is significant that this table is executed in burr-yew and sabicu, perhaps suggesting a provincial maker such as Wright & Elwick of Wakefield, whose use of Chippendale's Director designs combined with exotic timbers is recorded in commissions such as that for Charles, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham (d. 1782) for Wentworth Woodhouse, Yorkshire (see Christie's sale Wentworth catalogue, 8 July 1998, pp. 110-112).