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Lot Essay
A pattern for such a circular 'Library Table' containing a drawer with a ratcheted and leather-lined desk and with a drum pedestal supported by Grecian-scrolled 'claws' featured in Thomas Sheraton's The Cabinet Dictionary, London, 1803 (pl.55), while a 'circular movable bookcase' patented by Messrs. Morgan and Sanders of The Strand was discussed at length in Rudolph Ackermann's, The Repository of Arts, March, 1810 (illustrated in P. Agius, Ackermann's Regency Furniture and Interiors, Marlborough, 1984, pl.13). Its border of brass-inlaid ribbon guilloche in the French manner reflects the fashion of 'Buhl bordering' promoted by cabinet-makers such as George Oakley (d.1840) of Old Bond Street. In 1810, Oakley supplied a library table with this type of decoration for George, Prince Regent, later King George IV (The Dictionary of English Furniture Makers 1660-1840, Leeds, 1986, pp.658-660).
This library table was almost certainly commissioned by George Osborne, 6th Duke of Leeds (d.1838) for Hornby Castle, Yorkshire and is mentioned in an inventory taken soon after his death entitled Inventory of Furniture at Hornby Castle, Selected by Her Grace The Dowager Duchess of Leeds 1839. It is listed as number 204 in the 'Third Drawing room leading from Grand Staircase' as 'An Inlaid rosewood & Buhl Circular Lib'y Table on 6 Pillars & Claws & Cont'g 4 drawers & Circular Book Stand on top with 4 Shelves' (Yorkshire Archaeological Society, ref. DD5/12/66, p. 20). In a photograph of the Great Hall taken for Country Life in 1906, there are several pieces of Regency furniture, the seat furniture is upholstered in a Regency striped material and there are Regency curtains, so it is probable that the library table was acquired at the time of the 6th Duke's refurbishment of the castle in circa 1810 ('Hornby Castle, Yorkshire', Country Life, 14 July 1906, p.57 and C. Latham, In English Homes, London, 1907, vol. II, p.87).
A related library drum-table is illustrated in M. Jourdain, Regency Furniture 1795-1830, London, rev.ed., 1965, p.83, fig.198.
This library table was almost certainly commissioned by George Osborne, 6th Duke of Leeds (d.1838) for Hornby Castle, Yorkshire and is mentioned in an inventory taken soon after his death entitled Inventory of Furniture at Hornby Castle, Selected by Her Grace The Dowager Duchess of Leeds 1839. It is listed as number 204 in the 'Third Drawing room leading from Grand Staircase' as 'An Inlaid rosewood & Buhl Circular Lib'y Table on 6 Pillars & Claws & Cont'g 4 drawers & Circular Book Stand on top with 4 Shelves' (Yorkshire Archaeological Society, ref. DD5/12/66, p. 20). In a photograph of the Great Hall taken for Country Life in 1906, there are several pieces of Regency furniture, the seat furniture is upholstered in a Regency striped material and there are Regency curtains, so it is probable that the library table was acquired at the time of the 6th Duke's refurbishment of the castle in circa 1810 ('Hornby Castle, Yorkshire', Country Life, 14 July 1906, p.57 and C. Latham, In English Homes, London, 1907, vol. II, p.87).
A related library drum-table is illustrated in M. Jourdain, Regency Furniture 1795-1830, London, rev.ed., 1965, p.83, fig.198.