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Lot Essay
This pair of sculptural giltwood side tables was almost certainly supplied to Kiveton Park, and moved to Hornby Castle, Yorkshire, renowned for its 17th and 18th century furniture collection, after the marriage of Francis Osborne, 5th Duke of Leeds, to Lady Amelia D'Arcy in 1773.
Designed in the George II 'modern' fashion and serpentined in the 'picturesque' manner according to the 'Line of Beauty' discussed by William Hogarth in his Analysis of Beauty (1753) the tables are conceived as a Roman buffet, with marble tops displayed on naturalistically sculpted and fretted frames. Their ebullient carved Rococo ornamentation festooned with pierced scrolls and acanthus leaves, undoubtedly indicative of a skilled and specialist artisan, closely relate to table patterns by the master carver and 'best Ornament draughts-man in Europe', Matthias Lock (d.1765), published in his Six Tables (1746). The inspiration for the design is undoubtedly earlier with similar tables illustrated by Gaetano Brunetti in 1736 in his Sixty Different Sorts of Ornaments.
HORNBY CASTLE
In the 1838 Hornby Castle inventory these tables are possibly the pair in the 'Grand Hall', '2 carved Japann'd with gilt pier tables with statuary marble slabs' (WYAS, Ms. DD5/20/5) (they must by that time have been painted dark green in imitation of bronze). In 1838-39, following the death of her husband, George Osborne, 6th Duke of Leeds (d.1838), the Dowager Duchess of Leeds, Lady Charlotte Townshend (d.1856), daughter of George Townshend, 1st Marquess Townshend of Raynham, chose furniture from this inventory that she wished to keep in her collection, selecting to keep the pair of tables from the 'Grand Hall', although there is no record that she or her furniture actually left Hornby Castle.
The tables were next recorded in the collection of George Godolphin Osborne, 10th Duke of Leeds (d.1927) at Hornby Castle in 1912 where one of the pair was photographed in Country Life with a white marble top, and described as 'French Chippendale' referring to the rococo style popularised and Anglicised by Thomas Chippendale (d.1779) in his Gentleman and Cabinet Maker's Director (1753, 55 and 62) (P. Macquoid, 'Furniture of the XVII & XVIII Centuries, Furniture at Hornby Castle', Country Life, 30 March 1912, p.476, fig. 4). They remained at Hornby Castle until at least May 1920 when illustrated again in Country Life (Percy Macquoid, 'Furniture at Hornby Castle', Country Life, 29 May 1920, p. 722).
The present tables are almost certainly those sold from The Remaining Contents of Hornby Castle held from 2-9 June 1930 by Knight, Frank & Rutley, one was in the 'Dining-Room', lot 144,
'A Chippendale carved and painted console table, with egg-and-tongue and ornamental frieze, the frontal and side aprons in scroll in high relief, on cabriole legs, veined marble top, 6 ft.'
and its pair in the 'North Hall', lot 217,
'A Chippendale carved and painted console table, with egg-and-tongue and ornamental frieze, the frontal and side aprons in conventional foliated scrolls, on cabriole legs, veined marble top, 6 ft.'
In 1912 and 1920, they were photographed painted green, and in 1930 they were described as 'painted'. However by June 1970, they were advertised by Mallett in Apollo by which time they had been restored to their original giltwood (Apollo, June 1970).
COMPARABLE TABLES
The present side tables closely relate to a pair with a similar shallow friezes and pierced aprons exhibited by A. Cook at the Eleventh Antique Dealers' Fair and Exhibition, 1951. They are also comparable to another pair of side tables, formerly in the collection of the Earl of Wilton at Ditchley Park, Oxfordshire, sold from the Von Bulow estate, sold, Sotheby's, New York, 29 October 1988, lot 476 ($204,000 including premium).
Designed in the George II 'modern' fashion and serpentined in the 'picturesque' manner according to the 'Line of Beauty' discussed by William Hogarth in his Analysis of Beauty (1753) the tables are conceived as a Roman buffet, with marble tops displayed on naturalistically sculpted and fretted frames. Their ebullient carved Rococo ornamentation festooned with pierced scrolls and acanthus leaves, undoubtedly indicative of a skilled and specialist artisan, closely relate to table patterns by the master carver and 'best Ornament draughts-man in Europe', Matthias Lock (d.1765), published in his Six Tables (1746). The inspiration for the design is undoubtedly earlier with similar tables illustrated by Gaetano Brunetti in 1736 in his Sixty Different Sorts of Ornaments.
HORNBY CASTLE
In the 1838 Hornby Castle inventory these tables are possibly the pair in the 'Grand Hall', '2 carved Japann'd with gilt pier tables with statuary marble slabs' (WYAS, Ms. DD5/20/5) (they must by that time have been painted dark green in imitation of bronze). In 1838-39, following the death of her husband, George Osborne, 6th Duke of Leeds (d.1838), the Dowager Duchess of Leeds, Lady Charlotte Townshend (d.1856), daughter of George Townshend, 1st Marquess Townshend of Raynham, chose furniture from this inventory that she wished to keep in her collection, selecting to keep the pair of tables from the 'Grand Hall', although there is no record that she or her furniture actually left Hornby Castle.
The tables were next recorded in the collection of George Godolphin Osborne, 10th Duke of Leeds (d.1927) at Hornby Castle in 1912 where one of the pair was photographed in Country Life with a white marble top, and described as 'French Chippendale' referring to the rococo style popularised and Anglicised by Thomas Chippendale (d.1779) in his Gentleman and Cabinet Maker's Director (1753, 55 and 62) (P. Macquoid, 'Furniture of the XVII & XVIII Centuries, Furniture at Hornby Castle', Country Life, 30 March 1912, p.476, fig. 4). They remained at Hornby Castle until at least May 1920 when illustrated again in Country Life (Percy Macquoid, 'Furniture at Hornby Castle', Country Life, 29 May 1920, p. 722).
The present tables are almost certainly those sold from The Remaining Contents of Hornby Castle held from 2-9 June 1930 by Knight, Frank & Rutley, one was in the 'Dining-Room', lot 144,
'A Chippendale carved and painted console table, with egg-and-tongue and ornamental frieze, the frontal and side aprons in scroll in high relief, on cabriole legs, veined marble top, 6 ft.'
and its pair in the 'North Hall', lot 217,
'A Chippendale carved and painted console table, with egg-and-tongue and ornamental frieze, the frontal and side aprons in conventional foliated scrolls, on cabriole legs, veined marble top, 6 ft.'
In 1912 and 1920, they were photographed painted green, and in 1930 they were described as 'painted'. However by June 1970, they were advertised by Mallett in Apollo by which time they had been restored to their original giltwood (Apollo, June 1970).
COMPARABLE TABLES
The present side tables closely relate to a pair with a similar shallow friezes and pierced aprons exhibited by A. Cook at the Eleventh Antique Dealers' Fair and Exhibition, 1951. They are also comparable to another pair of side tables, formerly in the collection of the Earl of Wilton at Ditchley Park, Oxfordshire, sold from the Von Bulow estate, sold, Sotheby's, New York, 29 October 1988, lot 476 ($204,000 including premium).