EARLY 19TH CENTURY

Details

A REGENCY ROSEWOOD SOFA TABLE
EARLY 19TH CENTURY
The rounded rectangular twin-flap top above a pair of mahogany and cedar-lined drawers, on end-supports filled with turned balusters, on downswept legs with brass caps and castors, with ivory ball finials, lacking one ball finial, the handles original
28¼ in. (72 cm.) high; 62 in. (157.5 cm.) wide, open; 26 in. (66 cm.) deep

Provenance

Almost certainly Blayney Townley-Balfour (d.1857), Townley Hall, Co. Louth, and by descent.

Literature

C. Hussey, 'Townley Hall, Co. Louth - II', Country Life, 30 June 1948, p. 228, fig. [illustrated in situ in The Library].

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium, which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

The handsome 'Townley Hall' sofa-table, executed in 'Grecian' black-figured rosewood, was commissioned by Blayney Townley-Balfour (d. 1857) for the mansion at Townley Hall, Co. Louth that he was building at the time of his marriage in 1797 to Lady Florence Cole. The table, with its poetic 'Apollo' lyre pilasters, was designed for the Library, which served as a fashionable Living-Room; and, together with lyre-scrolled chairs, it was intended to harmonise with the room's elegant ceiling, with its 'Apollo' sunflowered Grecian-coffering designed by the eminent Irish architect Francis Johnston (d. 1829). 'Egyptian' lion-heads bear its handle-rings, while its Grecian-scrolled 'claw' displays ivory-white Egyptian-sun spheres. It is likely to have been executed by a leading Dublin cabinet-maker, and its ivory, like the adjoining Drawing Room's Chinese paper (known in the 18th century as 'India' paper), may have been a gift from Mrs Townley-Balfour's brother, Sir Lowry Cole, 'British Resident' in Mysore, India.

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