Burr-elm and ebonised writing or centre table
in the Greek revival manner, related to designs by Thomas Hope and George Smith. English, early-19th Century.
Height 29" (74cm).
Width 57" (1,45m).
Depth 28½" (73cm).
Provenance :- Collection of the architect Sir James Stirling (1926-1992), London.
Literature :- Christopher Claxton Stevens and Stewart Whittington, 18th Century English Furniture, The Norman Adams Collection, 1983, p. 360.
This table relates to designs for hall seats and a dressing table by George Smith (1782-1869),(1) and a pair of tables of this type, after a design by Thomas Hope,(2) were in the Hall of his house, Deepdene in Surrey, and are now in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.(3) A very similar design to Hope’s is also found in Percier & Fontaine's Recueil de Décorations Intérieures, for a table by Jacob Frères.(4) In all of these published designs the trestle ends have large scrolls with a bold anthemion between, just as on the present table, but with the larger scrolls at the top rather than the bottom.
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Footnotes
1) George Smith, A collection of Designs for Household Furniture, 1808, Plate nos. 34 and 72.
2) Thomas Hope, Household Furniture and Interior Decoration, 1807, Plate 12, nos. 6 & 7.
3) See Thomas Hope, Regency Designer, eds. David Watkin and Philip Hewatt-Jaboor, 2008, no. 66, pp. 374-376, and fig. 12-19, p. 232.
4) C. Percier & P. F. L. Fontaine, Recueil de Décorations Intérieures, 1812, Pl. 16, nos. 5 and 6.
