Live Auction 18848Apter-Fredericks: 75 Years of Important English Furniture
A GEORGE III POLYCHROME-PAINTED, SATINWOOD, TULIPWOOD-CROSSBANDED AND PARCEL-GILT SIDE TABLE
Lot 39

A GEORGE III POLYCHROME-PAINTED, SATINWOOD, TULIPWOOD-CROSSBANDED AND PARCEL-GILT SIDE TABLE

CIRCA 1795, AFTER DESIGN BY THOMAS SHERATON

Closed19 January 2021

Price Realised

GBP 20,000

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A GEORGE III POLYCHROME-PAINTED, SATINWOOD, TULIPWOOD-CROSSBANDED AND PARCEL-GILT SIDE TABLE
CIRCA 1795, AFTER DESIGN BY THOMAS SHERATON
The D-shaped top decorated with floral swags, within a beaded border of ribbon scrolls and flowers, the base with ribbon-tied husks on turned tapering reeded legs joined by a pearled concave-fronted stretcher, with typewritten label 'PROPERTY OF MRS. SCHLESINGER BOUGHT AT LEVERHULME SALE PAID FOR BY UNION TRUST CHEQUE TO FRANK PARTRIDGE - FEBRUARY 16, 1926,' and with fragmentary paper label for Leverhulme collection 'X1703', and Sobell Collection sale label, re-gilt, the legs formerly with applied ribbon-twist decoration
35 ¼ in. (89.5 cm.) high; 47 in. (119.5 cm.) wide; 16 ¾ in. (42.5 cm.) deep

1st Viscount Leverhulme (then Sir William Lever, Bt.), acquired from Partridge on 14th August 1916.
The late Viscount Leverhulme, The Hill, Hampstead; sold Anderson Galleries, New York, 9 February 1926, lot 89 ($1,700) where acquired by
Mrs Schlesinger (through Frank Partridge).
Sir Michael Sobell, acquired from Mallet on 23 September 1959 (for £680).
The Sobell Collection; sold Christie's, London, 23 June 1994, lot 102.
Anonymous sale (Property from an Important Private Irish Collection); Christie's, London, 19 November 2015, lot 680.

Specialist note


The fashion for painted and gilded pier tables dominated drawing-room design in the late 1780s and early 1790s. The design of this table corresponds to a design published by Thomas Sheraton in his Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Drawing Book, 1793, Appendix, pl. IV. A measure of the importance of floral decoration at this date is given by the frontispiece of The Cabinet-Maker's London Book of Prices, published in 1788, in which the frontispiece illustration is framed by ribbon-tied floral garlands. Furthermore it relates closely to a Gillows design for a card table, dated August 1794, but described as being executed in mahogany with kingwood crossbanding (L. Boynton, Gillow Furniture Designs 1760-1800, Royston, 1995, no. 7).
In the text accompanying his design, Sheraton comments that 'pier tables are merely for ornament under a glass, they are generally made very light, and the style of finishing them is rich and elegant. Sometimes the tops are of solid marble, but most commonly are veneered in rich satin, or other valuable wood, with a crossband on the outside, a border about two inches richly japanned, and a narrow crossband beyond it, to go all round'. In an article in Connoisseur in June 1967, pp. 110-111, Helena Hayward began to identify a group of similar tables with common features. The quality of the painted decoration is high and the tops frequently have an entwined ribbon banding. Among the group are:
1. A pair with giltwood bases illustrated in C. Claxton Stevens and S. Whittington, English Furniture, The Norman Adams Collection, Woodbridge, 1983, pp. 340-341.
2. A pair on painted bases illustrated, ibid., pp. 342-343.
3. A pair sold from the collection of Walter P. Chrysler, Parke Bernet, New York, 6-7 May 1960, lots 529-530.
4. A single semi-circular table in the Victoria and Albert Museum (W.5-1966; see: M. Tomlin, Catalogue of Adam Period Furniture, London, 1972, p. 156, no. S/9).
5. A pair in the Lady Lever Art Gallery (see: P. Macquoid, Catalogue, London, 1928, p. 76, no. 316 and pl. 75).