A MATCHED PAIR OF GEORGE III MAHOGANY SERPENTINE CARD-TABLES

The pierced and fretted games-tables reflect the gothic fashion promoted in Thomas Chippendale's The Gentleman's and Cabinet-Maker's Director, whose third edition was published in 1762 and which included a number of designs incorporating elements of gothic decoration, including a 'Gothick Side-Board with different feet, one cut through' (pl.LX), while a card-table with pierced legs relating to the present lot was illustrated in Messrs. Mayhew & Ince's The Universal System of Household Furniture, (1762), plate 52. A related serpentined gothic 'writing table' is illustrated in Anthony Coleridge, Chippendale Furniture, London, 1968, pl.241.