AN ITALIAN ORMOLU-BORDERED SEMI-PRECIOUS AND HARDSTONE TABLE TOP

The neo-classical specimen top displays an unusual arrangement of offset squares that relates closely in composition, and is almost certainly from the same Italian workshop, as another incorporated in an English 'Kentian' giltwood base, formerly at Syston Hall, Grantham, probably acquired by Sir John Hayford Thorold (d.1831). It was later acquired by William Hesketh Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme (d.1925) and is now in the Lady Lever Art Gallery (P. Macquoid, English Furniture, Tapestry and Needlework of the XVIth - XIXth Centuries, London, 1928, p. 66, no. 243).

David Nickerson (d. 1995) joined the London dealers Mallett in 1957, and it was his informed eye and eclectic taste that shaped the identity of Mallett's townhouse showrooms at Bourdon House from 1967.