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Lot Essay
The side table is designed in the French 'picturesque' manner called the 'modern' style in Thomas Chippendale's Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director, 1754. It’s frame is encrusted with rockwork and C-scrolls, centred by a prominent Roman acanthus leaf, and the legs are of extravagant cabriole form, foliate wrapped and with feet of rockwork displaying cabochons, a style that found early expression in the publications of Matthias Lock such as Six Tables (1746), and was more fully realized in designs for 'French commode tables’, in particular pl. 39 of Chippendale’s influential work.
The table was recently removed from Raynham Hall, the Norfolk seat of the Marquesses Townshend. Formerly fitted with a box compartment on top, and with associated serpentine top and gallery, the bottom boards (now removed) significantly bore a label for Balls Park, the Hertfordshire house that was originally home to Edward Harrison, former Governor of Madras from 1711 – 17, and whose only daughter and heiress Audrey married Charles Townshend, Lord Lynn, later 3rd Viscount Raynham, in 1723. After Edward Harrison’s death the property passed to Audrey until finally relinquished it in 1901. There is scant evidence of the furnishings of Balls Park in the later 18th and 19th centuries, but a group of superb George II mahogany commodes, which closely correspond with a design in Chippendale’s Director (ibid.) has been strongly linked to the house. Two were first sold by the Trustees of the 6th MarquessTownshend , Sotheby’s, 24 June, 1921, lots 40 and 41 (the former is now in the Philadelphia Museum of Art) , at which time it was claimed on good authority that the original bill for the commode showed that it had been supplied by Chippendale, Haig & Co. for Balls Park, though the bill itself has never actually been produced. The episode is discussed in C. Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, London, 1978, p. 289. When one from this group of commodes was sold by French & Co, Christie's, New York, 24 November 1998, lot 60, the Wakefield cabinet-makers Messrs. Wright and Elwick were also suggested as possible makers.
Regardless of who supplied the commodes, if Balls Park was furnished in that manner, the present lot may well have been acquired at to complement the overtly rococo decoration, and subsequently moved to Raynham Hall in 1901
Given the Irish origins of the table it is tempting to speculate that it was acquired by George, 1st Marquess Townshend (1724 - 1807). He was a distinguished soldier and among his many posts he served as Lord Lieutenant in Ireland between 1767 - 72.
The table was recently removed from Raynham Hall, the Norfolk seat of the Marquesses Townshend. Formerly fitted with a box compartment on top, and with associated serpentine top and gallery, the bottom boards (now removed) significantly bore a label for Balls Park, the Hertfordshire house that was originally home to Edward Harrison, former Governor of Madras from 1711 – 17, and whose only daughter and heiress Audrey married Charles Townshend, Lord Lynn, later 3rd Viscount Raynham, in 1723. After Edward Harrison’s death the property passed to Audrey until finally relinquished it in 1901. There is scant evidence of the furnishings of Balls Park in the later 18th and 19th centuries, but a group of superb George II mahogany commodes, which closely correspond with a design in Chippendale’s Director (ibid.) has been strongly linked to the house. Two were first sold by the Trustees of the 6th MarquessTownshend , Sotheby’s, 24 June, 1921, lots 40 and 41 (the former is now in the Philadelphia Museum of Art) , at which time it was claimed on good authority that the original bill for the commode showed that it had been supplied by Chippendale, Haig & Co. for Balls Park, though the bill itself has never actually been produced. The episode is discussed in C. Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, London, 1978, p. 289. When one from this group of commodes was sold by French & Co, Christie's, New York, 24 November 1998, lot 60, the Wakefield cabinet-makers Messrs. Wright and Elwick were also suggested as possible makers.
Regardless of who supplied the commodes, if Balls Park was furnished in that manner, the present lot may well have been acquired at to complement the overtly rococo decoration, and subsequently moved to Raynham Hall in 1901
Given the Irish origins of the table it is tempting to speculate that it was acquired by George, 1st Marquess Townshend (1724 - 1807). He was a distinguished soldier and among his many posts he served as Lord Lieutenant in Ireland between 1767 - 72.