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Lot Essay
This giltwood console with its lifelike depiction of one of Aesop’s fables, The Wolf and the Crane, closely relates to the designs of Thomas Johnson (1714-1778), particularly one for a console featuring another Aesop’s fable, The Fox and the Cat (reproduced here). Johnson emerged from obscurity to publish three collections of designs beginning in 1755 with Twelve Girandoles which was followed by publications of other furniture in 1756 and 1757. Their intensely naturalistic focus and fanciful nature, sometimes unconstrained by practicality, were a striking departure from traditional Rococo designs.
Aesop’s fables enjoyed a revival in the late 17th century by Jean de la Fontaine (1621-1695) who assembled and published an anthology of various fables and folk tales. These works became a classic in French literature and the English translation by John Ogilby with engraved illustrations by Francis Barlow (c.1626-1704) would have been very familiar to Johnson. The specific story this console illustrates is the tale of a wolf who promises a crane a large sum of money for removing a bone caught in his throat and reneges after the task is performed, the moral being to expect no reward for a service to the wicked.
Johnson’s designs even influenced some of the renowned cabinet-making firms in London such as Mayhew and Ince. A closely related pair of consoles supplied to Henry Digby 1st Earl Digby (1731-1793) for the Red Drawing Room at Sherborne Castle, Dorset, features marquetry tops which are supported by fully sculpted ostriches within naturalistic branches and rockwork (A. Smith and M. Hall, ‘Sherborne Castle Dorset II’, Country Life, 17 August 2000, p.46, fig.4). Household records beginning in 1764 indicate they were very likely supplied by the London cabinet-making firm Mayhew and Ince, and plate 75 from their Universal System of Household Furniture, 1762, features a design for a closely related console table (E. White, ed., Pictorial Dictionary of British 18th Century Furniture Design, Suffolk, 1990, p.271).
Other related examples include a console with just branches and a very similar base in the collection of the Marquis of Waterford at Curraghmore, Co. Waterford (H. Hayward, World Furniture, London, 1965, p.506, fig.501) and another example featuring squirrels which sold anonymously at Sotheby’s, New York, 7 April 1990, lot 138. Interestingly, a figure of a crane removed from a bed supplied to Harewood House in 1769 ( ‘Thomas Chippendale (1718-1779): A Celebration of British Craftsmanship and Design,’ The Chippendale Society, 2018, p.15) closely relates to the present console and illustrates the prevailing influence of this aesthetic.
Aesop’s fables enjoyed a revival in the late 17th century by Jean de la Fontaine (1621-1695) who assembled and published an anthology of various fables and folk tales. These works became a classic in French literature and the English translation by John Ogilby with engraved illustrations by Francis Barlow (c.1626-1704) would have been very familiar to Johnson. The specific story this console illustrates is the tale of a wolf who promises a crane a large sum of money for removing a bone caught in his throat and reneges after the task is performed, the moral being to expect no reward for a service to the wicked.
Johnson’s designs even influenced some of the renowned cabinet-making firms in London such as Mayhew and Ince. A closely related pair of consoles supplied to Henry Digby 1st Earl Digby (1731-1793) for the Red Drawing Room at Sherborne Castle, Dorset, features marquetry tops which are supported by fully sculpted ostriches within naturalistic branches and rockwork (A. Smith and M. Hall, ‘Sherborne Castle Dorset II’, Country Life, 17 August 2000, p.46, fig.4). Household records beginning in 1764 indicate they were very likely supplied by the London cabinet-making firm Mayhew and Ince, and plate 75 from their Universal System of Household Furniture, 1762, features a design for a closely related console table (E. White, ed., Pictorial Dictionary of British 18th Century Furniture Design, Suffolk, 1990, p.271).
Other related examples include a console with just branches and a very similar base in the collection of the Marquis of Waterford at Curraghmore, Co. Waterford (H. Hayward, World Furniture, London, 1965, p.506, fig.501) and another example featuring squirrels which sold anonymously at Sotheby’s, New York, 7 April 1990, lot 138. Interestingly, a figure of a crane removed from a bed supplied to Harewood House in 1769 ( ‘Thomas Chippendale (1718-1779): A Celebration of British Craftsmanship and Design,’ The Chippendale Society, 2018, p.15) closely relates to the present console and illustrates the prevailing influence of this aesthetic.