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拍品专文
Catherine (née Long) (d. 1825), heiress to the magnificent Wanstead House in Essex, was the daughter of Sir James Long, Bt. (d. 1794). He had inherited Wanstead from his uncle John Tylney Child, 2nd Earl Tylney of Castlemaine (d. 1784) and in 1812 his daughter Catherine married the Hon. William Pole Tylney-Long-Wellesley, later 4th Earl of Mornington (d. 1857). This table may have been acquired around the time of their marriage. Originally fitted with a black fossil marble top, the present leather and mahogany top is likely to have been fitted soon after the Wanstead sale of 1822.
A console-jardinière by Jacob-Frères, now at the château de Fontainebleau, features virtually identical crowned winged male busts resting on patinated bronze tapering collared supports which terminate in petal-shaped feet (illustrated in D. Ledoux-Lebard, le Mobilier Français du XIXème siècle , Paris, 1989, p.295, and exhibited in Chefs-d'oeuvre des grands ébénistes, 1951, no.90). What seems to be the only variation between the bust-headed supports on the console-jardinière and those on the present centre table is the wingspan of the male figures, which is slightly less wide on the jardinière most evidently to allow the wings to perfectly align with the frieze.
A further related jardinière also of hexagonal shape (although not concave-sided to base) features what appears to be identical crowned winged male busts, similarly resting on six identical supports (ill. in Le Dix-Neuvième Français, Collection Connaissance des Arts). Contrary to the earlier example, the wingspan of the male busts here seems to correspond to that on the busts on the table. Aesthetic considerations explain here again why the winged busts vary slightly between the latter hexagonal jardinière and the rectangular example. The desire to obtain visual harmony indeed dictates a perfect alignment of mounts and angles on the hexagonal version, as on the present table, but the specific model of winged busts used on all three examples is nevertheless one and the same.
Despite the rarity of the present model, a virtually identical hexagonal centre table which would appear to be the 'negative' of the present lot with winged female busts instead of male busts surmounting its supports, was sold at Sotheby's, 16 June 1995, lot 194 (£16,000 with premium). A related centre table featuring closely related winged male busts was sold Sotheby's, London, 23-24 June 1985 and more recently Christies, London, 3 July 1986, lot 123 (where sold as Russian). The winged busts on the latter table are indeed related to those featured on a centre table executed by Heinrich Gambs in 1807 for Pavlovsk Palace (ill. Pavlovsk; the Palace and the Park, Aurora edition, 1976, p.217) as well as those on a writing-desk attributed to Gambs and sold Sotheby's, London, 29 November 1985, lot 142.
A console-jardinière by Jacob-Frères, now at the château de Fontainebleau, features virtually identical crowned winged male busts resting on patinated bronze tapering collared supports which terminate in petal-shaped feet (illustrated in D. Ledoux-Lebard, le Mobilier Français du XIXème siècle , Paris, 1989, p.295, and exhibited in Chefs-d'oeuvre des grands ébénistes, 1951, no.90). What seems to be the only variation between the bust-headed supports on the console-jardinière and those on the present centre table is the wingspan of the male figures, which is slightly less wide on the jardinière most evidently to allow the wings to perfectly align with the frieze.
A further related jardinière also of hexagonal shape (although not concave-sided to base) features what appears to be identical crowned winged male busts, similarly resting on six identical supports (ill. in Le Dix-Neuvième Français, Collection Connaissance des Arts). Contrary to the earlier example, the wingspan of the male busts here seems to correspond to that on the busts on the table. Aesthetic considerations explain here again why the winged busts vary slightly between the latter hexagonal jardinière and the rectangular example. The desire to obtain visual harmony indeed dictates a perfect alignment of mounts and angles on the hexagonal version, as on the present table, but the specific model of winged busts used on all three examples is nevertheless one and the same.
Despite the rarity of the present model, a virtually identical hexagonal centre table which would appear to be the 'negative' of the present lot with winged female busts instead of male busts surmounting its supports, was sold at Sotheby's, 16 June 1995, lot 194 (£16,000 with premium). A related centre table featuring closely related winged male busts was sold Sotheby's, London, 23-24 June 1985 and more recently Christies, London, 3 July 1986, lot 123 (where sold as Russian). The winged busts on the latter table are indeed related to those featured on a centre table executed by Heinrich Gambs in 1807 for Pavlovsk Palace (ill. Pavlovsk; the Palace and the Park, Aurora edition, 1976, p.217) as well as those on a writing-desk attributed to Gambs and sold Sotheby's, London, 29 November 1985, lot 142.