ATTRIBUTED TO INCE & MAYHEW, CIRCA 1775

This mahogany serving-table, with its carved goat mask flanked by beribboned husk swags, recalls a large sideboard table by Thomas Chippendale (d. 1779) at Paxton House, Berwickshire, although the Chippendale mask is rendered in a more naturalistic fashion (D. Jones, The Paxton Style, exhib. cat. 5 June - 28 August 2018, p. 86). Another closely related table with a near-identical idiosyncratic goat mask to that found here was sold Christie's, London, 30 November 2000, lot 20 (£97,250 inc. premium). The present table and the one sold at Christie's in 2000 both have a fluted frieze that terminates in a distinctive pierced demi-lune motif, which is also found on a serving-table attributed to Ince & Mayhew, almost certainly from the collection of Henry, 2nd Earl Bathurst (d. 1794) and by descent, either at Cirencester Park, Gloucestershire, or Apsley House, London (sold most recently Christie's, London, 19 November 2015, lot 531, £57,500 inc. premium). This characteristic motif is similarly found on the serving-table sold from Christie's in 2000, and on yet another serving-table, which also has very similar oval floral paterae, offered Christie's, New York, 12 October 1990, lot 200. Ince & Mayhew were influenced by Chippendale's designs to the extent that the latter was in part obliged to issue a third edition of his Director in 1762 following the launch of their Universal System of Household Furniture.