Lot Essay
The table's inlaid sunflower framed by a golden hexagonal compartment, serves as a poetic trophy to recall the ceiling of Apollo's temple, known through its illustration in Richard Wood, Ruins of Palmyra, 1753. The scrolled 'claw' is inlaid with trompe l'oeil flutes in the antique manner. This pattern of claw, together with a readed and fluted baluster, features on a full-scale table design at Harewood House that is attributed to Thomas Chippendale (d.1779; see: C. Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, London, 1978, vol. II, p. 254, fig. 464). Three tables at Harewood attributed to Chippendale follow the design, as does one of 'guadaloupe wood' supplied in 1764 for Sir Lawrence Dundas' house in Arlington Street (cf: lot 30 in this sale and see: ibid., vol. II, figs. 469 and 470)