A George III Carved Mahogany Side Table
Depth: 79 cm 31”
Height: 92 cm 36”
Further images
Provenance
Stapleford Hall, Leicestershire
Exhibitions
Staplford Park Leicestershire/ Dining Room
The pair to the present table
Literature
Elizabeth White ‘Pictorial Dictionary of British 18th Century Furniture Design’
Jeremy Musson ‘Robert Adam, Country House Design, Decoration & the Art of Elegance’
R & J Adam ‘Works in Architecture’ 1774 Plate VIII from VolI No II Designs for Kenwood.
Publications
Christopher Hussey ‘Stapleford Park, Leicestershire, The Seat of Lieut.- Col. John Gretton, M.P’, Country Life, 23rd August 1924, p. 295 fig 18
A George III carved mahogany side table, the figured top above a leaf carved and fluted frieze, interspaced with detailed patera, centred by a tablet with scrolling foliate decoration. Standing on six square tapering fluted legs headed by guilloche collars and terminating in shaped block feet.
This table and the pair photographed at Stapleford park were most likely supplied to Robert Sherard 4th Earl of Harborough ( 1719-1799). It was under his stewardship in 1775, that the house was significantly extended, and the gardens planned and landscaped.
The exquisite neoclassical plasterwork depicting the death of Patroclus to the ceiling of the Entrance Hall, is one of the few surviving elements from the decoration overseen by the 4th Earl, and dates to 1776. The scrolling foliate motifs from this plasterwork is near identical to the central tablet on the present table, this along with the leaf carved work to the ceiling of the Ante room also mirroring the frieze of this table suggests that this table was designed to work in harmony with the architectural elements of the house.