CIRCA 1770, POSSIBLY BY JOHN LINNELL

This marquetry side table is possibly by the cabinet-maker John Linnell (1729-96) of 28 Berkeley Square, London, based on a number of stylistic attributes. The distinctive ogee feet are also found on a suite of mahogany seat-furniture comprising a settee and ten chairs with lyre-form back splats made by Linnell for Robert Child in 1768-70 for Osterley Park, Middlesex (H. Hayward, P. Kirkham, William and John Linnell, London, 1980, vol. II, p. 39, fig. 72; vol. I, pp. 118-119). This set was recorded in the breakfast room in the 1782 inventory at which date it was covered with needlework. The idiosyncratic floral paterae marquetry, which heads the tapering supports of this table, is related to that found on a pair of marquetry side-tables attributed to Linnell, for an unknown client, now at Heveningham Hall, Suffolk, and similar ornamentation is found on a pair of side-tables made for the Duke of Argyll for Inveraray Castle, Argyll, Scotland (ibid., vol. II, p. 162, figs. 309-10; p. 161, figs. 307-8). Furthermore, the centred oval flanked with husk swags is comparable to that found a pair of card tables made for the Duke of Northumberland for Alnwick Castle, Northumberland, and on another pair of card tables supplied to Viscount Scarsdale for the Withdrawing Room at Kedleston Hall, Derbyshire (ibid., p. 141, figs. 279-280; p. 143, fig. 283).