.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
The card tables are a fascinating early example of hardwood furniture of Canton manufacture executed to a Western pattern. Such furniture may have been made to special order, perhaps for a member of the British East India Company posted in China or Macao (C. Crossman, The Decorative Arts of the China Trade, Woodbridge, 1997, p. 234). Related hardwood chairs of the period have similar elaborately modelled knees with boldly carved cartouches of lions’ masks, and claw or hairy paw feet. These were undoubtedly copied from either an English model, which had made its way to the Orient or from published designs. The lions’ masks on these tables relate to those displayed on chairs illustrated in a conversation piece, circa 1741-3, by William Verelst, of the family of Sir Henry Gough, a wealthy merchant who built his fortune from trade with India and China. It is not known if the furniture in this picture was English or Chinese but Sir Henry probably owned examples of both. An armchair of this design is illustrated in P. Macquoid, English Furniture, Tapestry and Needlework, London, 1928, fig. 138, and an armchair and a pair of side chairs of the same model sold Bonham’s, London, 20 November 2013, lots 47 and 48.
Export furniture in general of this early date is relatively rare as supported by East India Company's ledgers, which list only a few dozen pieces per year, particularly in the two decades preceding the probable manufacture of the present tables. Among these pieces tables are few, Crossman suggests that for the Chinese trader case furniture such as bureaux, desks and bookcases used for storage and 'general usefulness’ were deemed more practical than tables with their limited, albeit important, functionality (Crossman, op. cit., p. 232), so the present tables are an important addition to the canon of known works.
China Trade Furniture in the Collection of the Earls of Harewood
The tables may have formed part of a distinctive group of 'China trade' furniture, either at Harewood House in Yorkshire; a pair of padouk torchères from Harewood, Yorkshire, sold Christie's, London, 23 May 2013, lot 31 (£21,250 including premium). While it is tempting to associate these pieces with Edward Lascelles, 1st Earl of Harewood or his son 'Beau', voracious collectors of ormolu-mounted Chinese porcelain, acquired both in Paris and from Vulliamy & Son, London, the date of both the tables and the torchères suggests that they may have been acquired significantly earlier by Edwin Lascelles, 1st Baron Harewood. In addition, we know that Edwin Lascelles almost certainly owned lacquer screens since his cabinet-maker Thomas Chippendale, in making a distinguished upright secretaire for Lascelles in 1773, wrote that it was 'vaneer'd with your own Japann', implying that he had used lacquer screens supplied by his patron (A. Coleridge, 'A Tale of Two Secretaires', Christie's sale catalogue, 3 July 1997, lot 80).
Many fine pieces of mid-18th Century case furniture, particularly card tables, have 'H.TIBATS' stamped on their hinges. The stamp almost certainly refers to Hugh Tibbatts, 'hinge and sash fastening maker' of Bell Street Wolverhampton, listed relatively late in the 1781 Pearson & Rollason Directory for Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Walsall, Dudley, Bilston and Willenhall. There appears to be no mention of Tibats or Tibbats (the spelling of the name varies) in the West Midlands area after 1781. That the stamp appears on pieces of earlier date, the business was probably long-established by 1781. A concertina-action card table, circa 1755-60, with quadrant hinges stamped 'H. Tibats’ is in the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum (W.65:1-1962). The name Tibats was first brought to notice in 1966, by Peter Thornton who highlighted the latter table and another privately owned card table. However, at this date the origins of the metalworker had not been established (P. Thornton, 'A Signed Hinge', Furniture History Society, vol. 2, 1966, pp. 44-45).
Export furniture in general of this early date is relatively rare as supported by East India Company's ledgers, which list only a few dozen pieces per year, particularly in the two decades preceding the probable manufacture of the present tables. Among these pieces tables are few, Crossman suggests that for the Chinese trader case furniture such as bureaux, desks and bookcases used for storage and 'general usefulness’ were deemed more practical than tables with their limited, albeit important, functionality (Crossman, op. cit., p. 232), so the present tables are an important addition to the canon of known works.
China Trade Furniture in the Collection of the Earls of Harewood
The tables may have formed part of a distinctive group of 'China trade' furniture, either at Harewood House in Yorkshire; a pair of padouk torchères from Harewood, Yorkshire, sold Christie's, London, 23 May 2013, lot 31 (£21,250 including premium). While it is tempting to associate these pieces with Edward Lascelles, 1st Earl of Harewood or his son 'Beau', voracious collectors of ormolu-mounted Chinese porcelain, acquired both in Paris and from Vulliamy & Son, London, the date of both the tables and the torchères suggests that they may have been acquired significantly earlier by Edwin Lascelles, 1st Baron Harewood. In addition, we know that Edwin Lascelles almost certainly owned lacquer screens since his cabinet-maker Thomas Chippendale, in making a distinguished upright secretaire for Lascelles in 1773, wrote that it was 'vaneer'd with your own Japann', implying that he had used lacquer screens supplied by his patron (A. Coleridge, 'A Tale of Two Secretaires', Christie's sale catalogue, 3 July 1997, lot 80).
Many fine pieces of mid-18th Century case furniture, particularly card tables, have 'H.TIBATS' stamped on their hinges. The stamp almost certainly refers to Hugh Tibbatts, 'hinge and sash fastening maker' of Bell Street Wolverhampton, listed relatively late in the 1781 Pearson & Rollason Directory for Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Walsall, Dudley, Bilston and Willenhall. There appears to be no mention of Tibats or Tibbats (the spelling of the name varies) in the West Midlands area after 1781. That the stamp appears on pieces of earlier date, the business was probably long-established by 1781. A concertina-action card table, circa 1755-60, with quadrant hinges stamped 'H. Tibats’ is in the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum (W.65:1-1962). The name Tibats was first brought to notice in 1966, by Peter Thornton who highlighted the latter table and another privately owned card table. However, at this date the origins of the metalworker had not been established (P. Thornton, 'A Signed Hinge', Furniture History Society, vol. 2, 1966, pp. 44-45).