Lot Essay
Related palm-flowered leopard monopodia feature on a writing-table pattern and a library table pattern both of 1804, published in George Smith's Collection of Designs for Household Furniture and Interior Decoration, London, 1808, pls. 83 and 87.
Variant designs for lion monopodiae featured in Charles Heathcote Tatham's Etchings representing fragments of Antique Grecian and Roman Architectural Ornament originally published in 1799 and republished in 1806, 1826 and again in 1843 by J.B. Nichols -including a design for an 'Antique Tripod of oriental alabaster from the collection in the Museum of the Vatican' which represents a related prototype. These were refined in Thomas Hope’s Household Furniture and Interior Decoration, 1807, pl.32 and others.
A plinth-supported table of this pattern probably formed part of the furnishings supplied by Gillows of London and Lancaster to Nathaniel Ryder, 1st Baron Harrowby (d. 1803) for Sandon Park, Staffordshire (illustrated in C. Aslet and M. Hall, 'Sandon Hall, Staffordshire', Country Life, 13 June 1991, p. 177, fig. 6), whilst a further closely related Regency table with mahogany-lined drawers was sold from the Coke Colletion, Jenkyn Place, Christie's London, 17 October 1996, lot 57 (£144,500). The attribution of this overall model to Gillows is further strengthened by the fact that the monopodium pattern featured on a documented Grecian sofa supplied circa 1805 by Gillows of Oxford Street, to Colonel Hughes for Kinmel Park, Denbighshire (sold from the collection of Mr. Edward Sarofim, Christie's London, 16 November 1995, lot 143), while a side table featuring the same monopodiae and hence attributed to Gillows is illustrated in Susan Stuart, Gillows of Lancaster and London 1730 – 1840, Woodbridge, 2008, vol. II, p.96, pl.643.
Whilst extremely well made, the substantial oak construction of this table, with oak-lined drawers and convex quarter fillets, as well as the heavier, monumental lion monopodiae all point to a slightly later date in the second quarter of the 19th Century, probably around the time that George Smith's second book of patterns The Cabinet Maker and Upholsterer's Guide was published in 1826.
Variant designs for lion monopodiae featured in Charles Heathcote Tatham's Etchings representing fragments of Antique Grecian and Roman Architectural Ornament originally published in 1799 and republished in 1806, 1826 and again in 1843 by J.B. Nichols -including a design for an 'Antique Tripod of oriental alabaster from the collection in the Museum of the Vatican' which represents a related prototype. These were refined in Thomas Hope’s Household Furniture and Interior Decoration, 1807, pl.32 and others.
A plinth-supported table of this pattern probably formed part of the furnishings supplied by Gillows of London and Lancaster to Nathaniel Ryder, 1st Baron Harrowby (d. 1803) for Sandon Park, Staffordshire (illustrated in C. Aslet and M. Hall, 'Sandon Hall, Staffordshire', Country Life, 13 June 1991, p. 177, fig. 6), whilst a further closely related Regency table with mahogany-lined drawers was sold from the Coke Colletion, Jenkyn Place, Christie's London, 17 October 1996, lot 57 (£144,500). The attribution of this overall model to Gillows is further strengthened by the fact that the monopodium pattern featured on a documented Grecian sofa supplied circa 1805 by Gillows of Oxford Street, to Colonel Hughes for Kinmel Park, Denbighshire (sold from the collection of Mr. Edward Sarofim, Christie's London, 16 November 1995, lot 143), while a side table featuring the same monopodiae and hence attributed to Gillows is illustrated in Susan Stuart, Gillows of Lancaster and London 1730 – 1840, Woodbridge, 2008, vol. II, p.96, pl.643.
Whilst extremely well made, the substantial oak construction of this table, with oak-lined drawers and convex quarter fillets, as well as the heavier, monumental lion monopodiae all point to a slightly later date in the second quarter of the 19th Century, probably around the time that George Smith's second book of patterns The Cabinet Maker and Upholsterer's Guide was published in 1826.