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拍品專文
The Rome-trained artist William Kent (d.1748) introduced this form of 'Roman marble buffet', evoking 'Jupiter's banquets', in an illustration for the poet Alexander Pope's history of Rome's foundation as recounted in his translation of Homer's Odyssey, 1725. Kent featured the feather-plumed head of the hero, wreathed by Jupiter's sacred oak and Roman acanthus, on the façade of a sarcophagus-scrolled buffet, whose console-trussed pilasters recalled the Roman fashion revived in England by the architect Inigo Jones (d.1652). At this period Kent was also assisting the 2nd Viscount Townshend in remodelling the Jonesian interiors of Raynham Hall, Norfolk, for which the court sculptor/carver James Richards (d.1767) supplied a related parlour pier-table in 1730 (M. Jourdain, The Work of William Kent, London, 1948 fig 70). It was invoiced as:- 'A table frame under the glass frame, with four truess, a piece of ornament in the front with a head, cornucopia's of fruit and flowers, foliage in the front ends and the moldings carved' .
The present tables' compact and sculptural design is indebted to Kent's table pattern invented for the Chiswick villa of Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington (J. Vardy, Some designs of Mr. Inigo Jones and Mr. William Kent, 1744, pl.40). Perhaps the closest parallel, however, can be drawn with the table supplied under Kent's direction to the Earl of Pembroke for the Little Ante Room at Wilton House, Wiltshire.
Numerous specialist carvers are associated with the realisation of William Kent's designs, including John Boson, George Nix, Gian-Battista Guelphi, Benjamin Goodison and the Linnells. Amongst them, the carver James Richards is perhaps the most well-documented; it is interesting to note that a very closely related deep foliate cornice directly beneath the marble slab also featured on the set of four carved tables supplied by Richards for the Hall at Raynham Hall, Norfolk in 1730 (G. Beard, 'Kentian furniture by James Richards and others', Apollo, January 2003, fig.6, pp.38-39).
THE GILDING
The current gilding and marbling on both tables is 20th century. Table 'A' showed traces of a grey-painted undercoat with a layer of Prussian blue. Some traces of oil gilding were also associated with Prussian blue and this was laid over an oil size of lead white and ochre, typical of 18th century gilding techniques.
Table 'B' has only one layer of gilding. However, the decoration of the marbled plinth showed blackened wood under the gesso, suggesting that paint stripping might have taken place.
The present tables' compact and sculptural design is indebted to Kent's table pattern invented for the Chiswick villa of Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington (J. Vardy, Some designs of Mr. Inigo Jones and Mr. William Kent, 1744, pl.40). Perhaps the closest parallel, however, can be drawn with the table supplied under Kent's direction to the Earl of Pembroke for the Little Ante Room at Wilton House, Wiltshire.
Numerous specialist carvers are associated with the realisation of William Kent's designs, including John Boson, George Nix, Gian-Battista Guelphi, Benjamin Goodison and the Linnells. Amongst them, the carver James Richards is perhaps the most well-documented; it is interesting to note that a very closely related deep foliate cornice directly beneath the marble slab also featured on the set of four carved tables supplied by Richards for the Hall at Raynham Hall, Norfolk in 1730 (G. Beard, 'Kentian furniture by James Richards and others', Apollo, January 2003, fig.6, pp.38-39).
THE GILDING
The current gilding and marbling on both tables is 20th century. Table 'A' showed traces of a grey-painted undercoat with a layer of Prussian blue. Some traces of oil gilding were also associated with Prussian blue and this was laid over an oil size of lead white and ochre, typical of 18th century gilding techniques.
Table 'B' has only one layer of gilding. However, the decoration of the marbled plinth showed blackened wood under the gesso, suggesting that paint stripping might have taken place.