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Lot Essay
This fine centre table is designed in the George IV French 'Antique' fashion popularised by R. Ackermann’s Repository of Arts, 1809-1828, and bears the stamp of the Royal cabinet-maker, Banting & Son of 22 Pall Mall, London. In its use of woods such as yew and oak it bears the hallmark of the work of George Bullock (d. 1818), the Tenterden Street cabinet-maker who struck a patriotic note in his furniture through the use of native British woods. Furthermore the use of a black wash to the undersides is a characteristic of Bullock whose stock was sold after his death at his former premises (Christie's, 3 May 1819). Much of the stock was dispersed into the London furniture trade and the firm continued in business under his successor William Atkinson. A sofa table featuring the same marquetry and identical pattern of pedestal is illustrated in C. Wainwright, George Bullock Cabinet Maker, London, 1988, no. 46, pp. 109 - 10
The table offered here may indeed be from Bullock's workshop or alternatively that of Banting & Son, who traded under that name from 1830 - 35. After the companywas dissolved, the future business was conducted alone by Thomas Banting the elder (G. Castle, ‘The France family of upholsterers and cabinet-makers’, Furniture History, vol. 41, 2005, p. 37; The London Gazette, 12 January 1836, p. 68). It is conceivable that Banting was employed to repair the table in some way, at which time they applied their trade stamp.
Banting & Son were known for their superb craftsmanship and quality. The firm’s Neoclassical-style furniture is similar to that of George Bullock (d. 1818) in particular the use and style of marquetry inlay, recorded in The Wilkinson Tracings, and in their use of native British woods. They were responsible for a number of significant and valuable commissions including their 'seemingly inexhaustible… staple employment’ as cabinet-maker and upholsterer to George IV at Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace, and in an earlier guise, the Earl of Bristol at Ickworth, and the Gage family in Whitehall Yard and 16 Arlington Street, London (ed. G. Beard, C. Gilbert, Dictionary of English Furniture Makers 1660-1840, Leeds, 1986, p. 38). They were later to gain an honourable mention for their display at the Great Exhibition, London, 1851, that included a marquetry table featured in the Illustrated London News, 4 October 1851, and in 1852 were supplying fine furniture to the Prime Minister, Benjamin Disraeli at 10 Downing Street.
The table offered here may indeed be from Bullock's workshop or alternatively that of Banting & Son, who traded under that name from 1830 - 35. After the companywas dissolved, the future business was conducted alone by Thomas Banting the elder (G. Castle, ‘The France family of upholsterers and cabinet-makers’, Furniture History, vol. 41, 2005, p. 37; The London Gazette, 12 January 1836, p. 68). It is conceivable that Banting was employed to repair the table in some way, at which time they applied their trade stamp.
Banting & Son were known for their superb craftsmanship and quality. The firm’s Neoclassical-style furniture is similar to that of George Bullock (d. 1818) in particular the use and style of marquetry inlay, recorded in The Wilkinson Tracings, and in their use of native British woods. They were responsible for a number of significant and valuable commissions including their 'seemingly inexhaustible… staple employment’ as cabinet-maker and upholsterer to George IV at Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace, and in an earlier guise, the Earl of Bristol at Ickworth, and the Gage family in Whitehall Yard and 16 Arlington Street, London (ed. G. Beard, C. Gilbert, Dictionary of English Furniture Makers 1660-1840, Leeds, 1986, p. 38). They were later to gain an honourable mention for their display at the Great Exhibition, London, 1851, that included a marquetry table featured in the Illustrated London News, 4 October 1851, and in 1852 were supplying fine furniture to the Prime Minister, Benjamin Disraeli at 10 Downing Street.