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Lot Essay
This pair of giltwood tables, attributed to the cabinet-makers Ince and Mayhew, were likely commissioned for one of the partnership’s most important and extensive clients, the 3rd Earl of Kerry. Francis, 3rd Earl of Kerry, head of the ancient Irish family of Fitzmaurice and first cousin of the 2nd Earl of Shelburne, succeeded his father at the age of six, embarked on a career of almost unparalleled extravagance, acquiring, furnishing and then selling in rapid succession three houses in England before decamping to France in 1777. In all these activities, Ince and Mayhew were very intimately involved. Employed from 1766 onwards, Ince and Mayhew undertook the furnishing and decoration of two country houses, the organisation of two house sales by Christie’s, the provision of detailed architectural designs and the supervision of a wide variety of building and decorating trades during the extensive remodelling and furnishing of a large London house. They acted for Lord Kerry variously as suppliers of new furniture and upholstery, much of it extremely expensive, overseers of builders, decorators and specialist suppliers (for example Matthew Boulton), agents for the sale of contents (forming a close relationship in the process with London’s leading auctioneer, James Christie), mortgagees of land in Ireland and collieries in Durham, and eventually speculative co-purchasers of Lord Kerry’s house in Portman Square.
These tables almost certainly relate specifically to a bill for Lord Kerry’s furniture at Prior Park, a large country house on the outskirts of Bath for which he acquired the lease in 1768. Prior Park, built in a commanding position overlooking the city of Bath by the entrepreneur and philanthropist Ralph Allen to the designs of John Wood the Elder in the 1730s and 1740s, seems to have been acquired by Lord Kerry on his wife’s account, given her reportedly poor health and the proximity of the house to the fashionable spa. Whatever the reason, the Kerrys’ tenure was very brief. Although only one bill from the partners for the extensive furnishing scheme survives, headed ‘Sundries for Bath’, this indicates (when taken with the substantial sale catalogue produced when the Kerrys left in mid-1772) that the decorative schemes and the upholstery materials used throughout (green, blue and pink being the most favoured colours) and the furniture supplied were both fashionable and commensurate with the grandeur of the house.
The furniture attributed to this commission also included a commode, secretaire and dressing-table described as ‘French’ and seem likely actually to have been of French origin rather than simply French in style. These pieces, which were almost certainly supplied via Ince and Mayhew, were repaired for the State Bedchamber in 1769 (Furniture History, XLIX (2013), p. 66).
In amongst the extensive surviving bills for Ince and Mayhew, for the Drawing Room of Prior Park, ‘Two very Rich Inlaid tops to pier Tables with Rich wrought Brass Mouldings Gilt (£32)' appear to match closely the present pair of giltwood pier tables, with their shaped marquetry tops elaborately inlaid with flowers and bordered with gilt-metal. A further pair described in the Anti-Chamber also appear similar.
Both pairs were subsequently included in the sale on the premises at Prior Park, held by Bennet and Fenton 20–5 July 1772:
Drawing Room
Lot 15: 'A very curious inlaid table on a carv'd and gilt frame and leather cover'
Lot 16: 'A ditto'
Anti-Chamber
Lot 95: 'A curious inlaid shap'd pier table, on a carved and gilt frame with leather cover'
Lot 96: 'A ditto'
Whilst either description could apply to the present tables, the specific mention of the 'shap'd' nature of lots 95 and 96 perhaps indicates a stronger link. Both pairs were purchased by the auctioneer Fenton, perhaps acting for the partners.
The Prior Park Drawing Room occupied the north-west corner of the principal floor. This room was furnished luxuriously. Seating was provided by a grand suite of twelve white and gold chairs and a sofa upholstered in blue silk matching the curtains. Two ‘palm Gerandoles with Riband Tops neatly Carved & Gilt in Best burnish Gold 3 lights each wrot leaf Pans & Nossells Compleat’ (£21) hung on two of the piers, while the other two piers were filled with a pair of richly carved and gilded pier glasses above a pair of pier tables (possibly ‘Two very Rich Inlaid tops to pier Tables with Rich wrought Brass Mouldings Gilt (£32)). This elegant ensemble was completed by a pair of cut-glass lustres and a fitted Wilton carpet.
According to an advertisement in The Connoisseur in June 1972, these tables passed into the collection of Lord Swansea of Caer Beris, Brecon. An extravagant Tudor revival house built in 1898 on the banks of the river Irfon, on the ruins of a much older Roman fort, Caer Beris was purchased by Odo Vivian, 3rd Baron Swansea in 1923. Caer Beris was later sold in 1967 in the same year as the tables appeared for sale as the property of Lady Stern, from Barham Court, Kent (Sotheby's, London, 17 March 1967, lot 155).
The tables share many hallmarks of Ince and Mayhew’s design with their intricately carved neoclassical ornament and swirled marquetry, ram's heads and delicate giltwood - most closely with the ram's heads prevalent on another extensive commission undertaken at the same time for the Earl of Exeter, 1767-70. A commode, one of a pair en suite with a pair of corner cupboards, incorporating re-worked 17th-century marquetry and ormolu mounts, along with a further commode in rosewood, satinwood and burr-yew and with ormolu mounts, display slightly differing comparative uses of the ram's head motif. The corner cupboard in particular makes use of the abundant floral spray in an urn in addition.
The design of the table tops, although unique in their overall composition, is represented in the firm’s documented work elsewhere. The swirled foliate design in combination with the use of an urn is seen most prominently in a commode made for Viscount Weymouth c.1770, and the swirled foliage alone can be seen also on the sides of a commode made for Lord Clive c. 1775, and particularly in idiosyncratic combination with the inlay of yew to the top of a commode made for Viscount Townshend in 1766.
These tables almost certainly relate specifically to a bill for Lord Kerry’s furniture at Prior Park, a large country house on the outskirts of Bath for which he acquired the lease in 1768. Prior Park, built in a commanding position overlooking the city of Bath by the entrepreneur and philanthropist Ralph Allen to the designs of John Wood the Elder in the 1730s and 1740s, seems to have been acquired by Lord Kerry on his wife’s account, given her reportedly poor health and the proximity of the house to the fashionable spa. Whatever the reason, the Kerrys’ tenure was very brief. Although only one bill from the partners for the extensive furnishing scheme survives, headed ‘Sundries for Bath’, this indicates (when taken with the substantial sale catalogue produced when the Kerrys left in mid-1772) that the decorative schemes and the upholstery materials used throughout (green, blue and pink being the most favoured colours) and the furniture supplied were both fashionable and commensurate with the grandeur of the house.
The furniture attributed to this commission also included a commode, secretaire and dressing-table described as ‘French’ and seem likely actually to have been of French origin rather than simply French in style. These pieces, which were almost certainly supplied via Ince and Mayhew, were repaired for the State Bedchamber in 1769 (Furniture History, XLIX (2013), p. 66).
In amongst the extensive surviving bills for Ince and Mayhew, for the Drawing Room of Prior Park, ‘Two very Rich Inlaid tops to pier Tables with Rich wrought Brass Mouldings Gilt (£32)' appear to match closely the present pair of giltwood pier tables, with their shaped marquetry tops elaborately inlaid with flowers and bordered with gilt-metal. A further pair described in the Anti-Chamber also appear similar.
Both pairs were subsequently included in the sale on the premises at Prior Park, held by Bennet and Fenton 20–5 July 1772:
Drawing Room
Lot 15: 'A very curious inlaid table on a carv'd and gilt frame and leather cover'
Lot 16: 'A ditto'
Anti-Chamber
Lot 95: 'A curious inlaid shap'd pier table, on a carved and gilt frame with leather cover'
Lot 96: 'A ditto'
Whilst either description could apply to the present tables, the specific mention of the 'shap'd' nature of lots 95 and 96 perhaps indicates a stronger link. Both pairs were purchased by the auctioneer Fenton, perhaps acting for the partners.
The Prior Park Drawing Room occupied the north-west corner of the principal floor. This room was furnished luxuriously. Seating was provided by a grand suite of twelve white and gold chairs and a sofa upholstered in blue silk matching the curtains. Two ‘palm Gerandoles with Riband Tops neatly Carved & Gilt in Best burnish Gold 3 lights each wrot leaf Pans & Nossells Compleat’ (£21) hung on two of the piers, while the other two piers were filled with a pair of richly carved and gilded pier glasses above a pair of pier tables (possibly ‘Two very Rich Inlaid tops to pier Tables with Rich wrought Brass Mouldings Gilt (£32)). This elegant ensemble was completed by a pair of cut-glass lustres and a fitted Wilton carpet.
According to an advertisement in The Connoisseur in June 1972, these tables passed into the collection of Lord Swansea of Caer Beris, Brecon. An extravagant Tudor revival house built in 1898 on the banks of the river Irfon, on the ruins of a much older Roman fort, Caer Beris was purchased by Odo Vivian, 3rd Baron Swansea in 1923. Caer Beris was later sold in 1967 in the same year as the tables appeared for sale as the property of Lady Stern, from Barham Court, Kent (Sotheby's, London, 17 March 1967, lot 155).
The tables share many hallmarks of Ince and Mayhew’s design with their intricately carved neoclassical ornament and swirled marquetry, ram's heads and delicate giltwood - most closely with the ram's heads prevalent on another extensive commission undertaken at the same time for the Earl of Exeter, 1767-70. A commode, one of a pair en suite with a pair of corner cupboards, incorporating re-worked 17th-century marquetry and ormolu mounts, along with a further commode in rosewood, satinwood and burr-yew and with ormolu mounts, display slightly differing comparative uses of the ram's head motif. The corner cupboard in particular makes use of the abundant floral spray in an urn in addition.
The design of the table tops, although unique in their overall composition, is represented in the firm’s documented work elsewhere. The swirled foliate design in combination with the use of an urn is seen most prominently in a commode made for Viscount Weymouth c.1770, and the swirled foliage alone can be seen also on the sides of a commode made for Lord Clive c. 1775, and particularly in idiosyncratic combination with the inlay of yew to the top of a commode made for Viscount Townshend in 1766.