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Lot Essay
These tables and those in the following two lots can be identified as four referred to in Gillows' 'Memorandum of Sundries for the Right Honble Lord Bolton Hackwood Park', dated London May 1813 and representing an agreement to supply furniture between Gillows and Lord Bolton (Hampshire RO, 11M49 468I).
Among the furniture in the Saloon there was:
4 handsome Mahogany Tables to
place before the sofas 2 Drawers in
each, one of the Drawers of 2 of
the tables [to contain a boards for Chess
and one of the Drawers of the other 2
Tables to contain Back-Gammon Boards]
This last section (in square brackets) is crossed out and the manuscript is annotated 'Ld B will chuse these'. It appears that Lord Bolton was happy to have them; the backgammon boards survive and there are further fittings suggesting that even if now lost, the Chess Boards were also provided.
The style of the tables may seem slightly surprising for tables apparently supplied in 1813. Their heavily carved style may seem more reminiscent of furniture of the 1820s but there is a crucial inscription on the Memorandum stating that 'The Form of the tables to correspond with the old Furniture for the Saloon'. It therefore seems likely that these tables are an exceptionally early example of the rococo revival that came to prominence later in the 19th Century and was to dominate furniture design in the middle of the century.
Among the furniture in the Saloon there was:
4 handsome Mahogany Tables to
place before the sofas 2 Drawers in
each, one of the Drawers of 2 of
the tables [to contain a boards for Chess
and one of the Drawers of the other 2
Tables to contain Back-Gammon Boards]
This last section (in square brackets) is crossed out and the manuscript is annotated 'Ld B will chuse these'. It appears that Lord Bolton was happy to have them; the backgammon boards survive and there are further fittings suggesting that even if now lost, the Chess Boards were also provided.
The style of the tables may seem slightly surprising for tables apparently supplied in 1813. Their heavily carved style may seem more reminiscent of furniture of the 1820s but there is a crucial inscription on the Memorandum stating that 'The Form of the tables to correspond with the old Furniture for the Saloon'. It therefore seems likely that these tables are an exceptionally early example of the rococo revival that came to prominence later in the 19th Century and was to dominate furniture design in the middle of the century.