A GEORGE III GILTWOOD CONSOLE TABLE

A table with related hairy lion's legs and paw feet is at Grimsthorpe Castle, Lincolnshire (P. Macquoid & R. Edwards, The Dictionary of English Furniture, rev. ed. 1954, vol. III, p. 123, fig. 4). A harlequin pair of related tables with lion's legs and paw feet, with leg veins carved into the gesso, are in the collection of Earl Spencer in the Wootton Hall at Althorp, Northamptonshire. It is possible that the serpents seen curling up the legs of the present table were originally also intended to be veins, but that their nature was altered when the table was re-gessoed and re-gilt.