A GEORGE III PAPIER-MACHE POLYCHROME-PAINTED AND EBONISED OVAL TRIPOD PEMBROKE TABLE
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VA… Read more THE PROPERTY OF A LADY FROM THE COLLECTION OF THE HON. SIR JOHN WARD, K.C.V.O. (LOTS 101-104)
A GEORGE III PAPIER-MACHE POLYCHROME-PAINTED AND EBONISED OVAL TRIPOD PEMBROKE TABLE

ATTRIBUTED TO HENRY CLAY

Details
A GEORGE III PAPIER-MACHE POLYCHROME-PAINTED AND EBONISED OVAL TRIPOD PEMBROKE TABLE
Attributed to Henry Clay
The twin-flap top decorated in imitation of Japanese lacquer with simulated nashiji and bordered with a running pattern of anthemia and centred by an oval, above a frieze drawer, on a turned flared baluster shaft, on cabriole legs with pointed pad feet and leather castors, the decoration rubbed, the handle apparently original
28 in. (71 cm.) high; 30¼ in. (76.5 cm.) wide, open; 18 in. (46 cm.) deep
Provenance
Acquired by The Hon. Sir John Ward, K.C.V.O., probably for Dudley House, London, in the early 20th Century, and by descent to
Colonel E.J.S. Ward, M.V.O. and by descent.
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 table, with Roman medallion top on a 'vase' pillar and tripod 'claw', would have been intended for an 'Etruscan' bedroom apartment, popularised by Robert Adam (d. 1792) and his Works in Architecture, 1774. Japanned around a central medallion vignette, in earthen-red on a black ground after the Grecian Etruscan vase manner, its ornament derives in particular from Pierre-François-Hugues d'’Hancarville's publication of Sir William Hamilton's, Collection of Etruscan, Greek and Roman Antiquities, Naples, 1766-67. Bordered in ivory white Grecian palms, it relates to a Pembroke table supplied in the mid-1770s for Robert Child's state dressing-room at Osterley Park, Middlesex by the Birmingham japanning and papier-mâché manufactory of Henry Clay (d. 1812), following the opening of his London premises in Covent Garden in 1772. He specialised, according to a visitor in 1775, in wares in 'black with orange figures in the style of Etruscan vases' (see M. Tomlin, Catalogue of Adam Period Furniture, London, 1982, j/5).

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