Lot 245Y
A fine Regency rosewood specimen marble and gilt bronze mounted centre table with specimen marble top attributed to Gillows
4 November 2015, 12:00 GMT
London, New Bond StreetSold for £20,000 inc. premium
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A fine Regency rosewood specimen marble and gilt bronze mounted centre table with specimen marble top attributed to Gillows
The circular inset top with various sized rectangular radiating marbles and semi-precious stones including malachite, lapis lazuli, cipolin, campan, breccia, red griotte and violet brocatelle within a verde antico band on a white ground, within a lobed border and applied with cabochon and guilloche edge, on a turned and lobed acanthus leaf carved shaft and leaf carved tripartite platform base, with guilloche applied frieze on acanthus leaf carved cabriole legs and recessed castors, 95cm in diameter, 79cm high (37in in diameter, 31in high).
Footnotes
Provenance:
The Hon. William Francis Spencer Ponsonby, 1st Baron de Mauley of Canford (1787-1855).
The estate of Canford House, nr. Poole, Dorset was left to Ponsonby's wife by her maternal grandfather Sir John Webb. Ponsonby settled there in the mid 1820's and constructed a new mansion and made several local improvements. Although he had to sell Canford in the 1840's, he was remembered in Poole for his 'private kindnesses and public benefits'.
William Ponsonby is recorded as a client of Gillows of Lancaster, supplying him interior doors, (see Gillows Estimate Sketch Books reference 3088 and 3089).
These types of specimen marble tops were typical momentoes of a grand tour bought back from Italy by the British aristocracy in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The tops where then normally supplied with English bases. Gillow are recorded as making two such bases for Stephen Tempest of Broughton Hall, the profuse carving and the choice of rosewood as the principal timber made these stands relatively expensive with Tempest paying Gillows in London £47.0.0d for the example still at Broughton Hall and illustrated in S.Stuart, Gillows of Lancaster and London, 1730-1840, Vol.I, Suffolk, 2008, p.337, pl.391.
The heavily carved base reflects the use of bold high relief carving which can be seen on furniture produced by Gillows in the 1820s and 1830s. The heavy acanthus leaves can be seen on the tables sold Christie's Belton House, Lincolnshire (The property of The Lord Brownlow), 30 April - 2 May, 1984, lot 90 and Sotheby's London, 17 November 2010, lot 194.
See also S.Stuart, ibid., Vol II, pl. E.5 which shows a drawing room layout designed for G.Bamford about 1820-30 again employing similar carving. The drawing also shows a pair of bergrères and a sofa which in turn correspond to a suite supplied by Gillow & Co. in 1824 to Thomas Wynn (d.1832), 2nd Baron Newborough, for Glynllifon, Caernarvonshire, Wales, sold Christie's, London, 9 March 2010, lots 101 & 102. This form of carved scroll foot was also employed by the firm and appears on a stamped goncalo alves writing table sold Christie's, London, 13 September 2007, lot 1160.