Lot Essay
This sofa table with voluted and patera enriched trusses springing from an altar plinth with Grecian-scrolled claw relate to a sofa table and other furniture supplied by William Trotter, the celebrated Edinburgh cabinet maker, to Sir John Pringle for the new drawing room at the Haining, Selkirk in the 1820's, indeed Sir John Pringle featured among the debtors listed at the time of Trotter's death in 1834
(F. Bamford A Dictionary of Edinburgh Wrights and Furniture Makers 1660-1840, Leeds, 1983, pls.58, 59 and 60 and p.135). The table pattern also relates to a pair of card tables, which are likely to have formed part of the furnishings purchased by Arthur Wellesley 1st Duke of Wellington (d.1852) from Thomas Dowbiggin of Mount Street, London (M.Jourdain, Regency Furniture 1795-1830, London, rev.ed 1965, fig.158). It is interesting to note that both these firms worked together in the 1820's in the furnishing of Kinfauns Castle, Perthshire (F. Bamford, op.cit.,p122).
(F. Bamford A Dictionary of Edinburgh Wrights and Furniture Makers 1660-1840, Leeds, 1983, pls.58, 59 and 60 and p.135). The table pattern also relates to a pair of card tables, which are likely to have formed part of the furnishings purchased by Arthur Wellesley 1st Duke of Wellington (d.1852) from Thomas Dowbiggin of Mount Street, London (M.Jourdain, Regency Furniture 1795-1830, London, rev.ed 1965, fig.158). It is interesting to note that both these firms worked together in the 1820's in the furnishing of Kinfauns Castle, Perthshire (F. Bamford, op.cit.,p122).