Regency Brass-Mounted Rosewood, Ebonized and Parcel-Gilt Writing Table

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Regency Brass-Mounted Rosewood, Ebonized and Parcel-Gilt Writing Table

About the Item

The table has a rectangular top with rounded corners, with a blue leather writing surface surrounded on three sides with a pierced brass gallery. The frieze contains two drawers with lion’s mask drop-ring handles with brass banding; the reverse has two simulated drawers and the ends are panelled in a similar manner. The corners are rounded and applied with ormolu panels of banding. With X frame supports terminating in bold leopard’s heads conjoined by a turned baluster stretcher with reeding to the middle section, on inward facing paw feet with countersunk brass castors. Provenance: Probably supplied to Cropley Ashley-Cooper, 6th Earl of Shaftesbury (1768-1851) for St. Giles’s House, Dorset and thence by descent to Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 10th Earl of Shaftesbury (1938-2005). Sold, The Property of the Earl of Shaftesbury, Christie's London, 4th July 2002, lot 160 (£36,000) Literature: Partridge Fine Arts, Furniture, Silver and Works of Art, 2004, no. 43, p. 100. The form of this elegant table with entwined lion monopodia, may be compared to a writing-table made around 1808 for Southill, Bedfordshire (F.J.B. Watson, 1951 figs 22 and 42) and supplied by William Marsh and Thomas Tatham to Samuel Whitbread. Henry Holland was responsible for the design of Southhill and he was inspired by Charles Heathcote Tatham (d. 1842), the architect and author. Tatham travelled to Italy between 1794 and 1797 and drew on the excavations of the classical sites which he had seen there as a source for his designs. He published these in 1799 as etchings representing fragments of Antique Grecian and Roman Architectural ornament. It was Tatham who introduced many elements of the Regency decorative repertoire such as the Lion’s head monopodia, as well as anthemion, palmettes and lotus leaves. It was his designs that also inspired Thomas Hope. The firm of Marsh and Tatham was associated from the 1780s “with the group of distinguished craftsmen working for the Price of Wales and other important patrons” (Frances Collard, 1986, p.278) Collard goes on to point out that it is not certain who provided the designs for their furniture, although Henry Holland was involved with the work for the Prince of Wales, and Charles Heathcote Tatham must have worked closely with his brother Thomas’s firm.

Attributed to:
Marsh and Tatham (Cabinetmaker)
Dimensions:
Height: 29.53 in (75 cm)Width: 42.52 in (108 cm)Depth: 27.17 in (69 cm)
Style:
Regency (Of the Period)
Materials and Techniques:
Rosewood,Veneer
Place of Origin:
England
Period:
Early 19th Century
Date of Manufacture:
1810
Condition:
Wear consistent with age and use.
Seller Location:
London, GB
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU4249113854281