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Lot Essay
Designed in Louis XV picturesque manner, with their rusticated Gothick arcades and serpentined and flowered frames supporting an arched pagoda with foliated canopy, these tables relate to patterns for 'slab frames' in Ince and Mayhew's Universal System of Household Furniture of 1762.
In the 20th century, they were acquired by Daisy Fellowes. Editor of Harper's Bazaar and dubbed by Vogue the best dressed woman in the world, Daisy Fellowes epitomised good taste between the thirties and her death in 1962. The daughter of the duc Decazes, she married firstly Prince Jean de Broglie and secondly in 1919 the Hon. Reginald Fellowes (1884-1953), second son of the second Baron de Ramsey. She was also American by descent, being the granddaughter of Isaac Singer. Among her various homes in London, Paris, Geneva, as well as Donnington Grove, perhaps the most famous was her villa at Cap-Martin, near Monaco, known as Les Zoraides. She entertained lavishly both here and on her 190 foot yacht Sister Anne which she moored in Monaco and lent to various distinguished friends such as the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and Winston Churchill.
A gilding analysis undertaken by University College London revealed that 'some, but not all, of the samples which were taken from the legs revealed remains of an earlier water gilding under the present gesso and water gilding. That earlier gilding could well be the original decoration. None of the samples taken from the frieze were found to include that earlier gilding. The sample from the table top showed a completely different set of layers including black paint, oil gilding and even some 'gold' paint.'
In the 20th century, they were acquired by Daisy Fellowes. Editor of Harper's Bazaar and dubbed by Vogue the best dressed woman in the world, Daisy Fellowes epitomised good taste between the thirties and her death in 1962. The daughter of the duc Decazes, she married firstly Prince Jean de Broglie and secondly in 1919 the Hon. Reginald Fellowes (1884-1953), second son of the second Baron de Ramsey. She was also American by descent, being the granddaughter of Isaac Singer. Among her various homes in London, Paris, Geneva, as well as Donnington Grove, perhaps the most famous was her villa at Cap-Martin, near Monaco, known as Les Zoraides. She entertained lavishly both here and on her 190 foot yacht Sister Anne which she moored in Monaco and lent to various distinguished friends such as the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and Winston Churchill.
A gilding analysis undertaken by University College London revealed that 'some, but not all, of the samples which were taken from the legs revealed remains of an earlier water gilding under the present gesso and water gilding. That earlier gilding could well be the original decoration. None of the samples taken from the frieze were found to include that earlier gilding. The sample from the table top showed a completely different set of layers including black paint, oil gilding and even some 'gold' paint.'