Oliver Cornish
Sale Coordinator for Furniture, Sculpture, Rugs & Tapestries
Lot 92TP
A pair of late George II or early George III giltwood and japanned console tables 1755-c.1760
3 December 2025, 13:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street£6,000 - £8,000
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Thomas Moore
Head of Department
A pair of late George II or early George III giltwood and japanned console tables
1755-c.1760
Each with an associated 18th century japanned top decorated with exotic birds, trees, flowers and foliage within an alternating Chinese lattice work, floral and foliate decorated tablet border, with an ovolo moulded edge, above an open apron configured as a repeating pattern of shaped ogee arches with each arch comprised of twin scrolls, interspersed by alternating twin arches each surmounted with a c-scroll and twinned foliate bosses centred by an ogee arch with two opposing c-scrolls with scrolled acanthus adornments below a husk carved and c-scrolled chinoiserie canopy, on interlocked triple cluster columnar front legs, each column headed by stiff-leaf foliate capitals, terminating in plinth feet, re-gilt, 94.5cm wide x 51cm deep x 85cm high, (37in wide x 20in deep x 33in high) (2)
Each with an associated 18th century japanned top decorated with exotic birds, trees, flowers and foliage within an alternating Chinese lattice work, floral and foliate decorated tablet border, with an ovolo moulded edge, above an open apron configured as a repeating pattern of shaped ogee arches with each arch comprised of twin scrolls, interspersed by alternating twin arches each surmounted with a c-scroll and twinned foliate bosses centred by an ogee arch with two opposing c-scrolls with scrolled acanthus adornments below a husk carved and c-scrolled chinoiserie canopy, on interlocked triple cluster columnar front legs, each column headed by stiff-leaf foliate capitals, terminating in plinth feet, re-gilt, 94.5cm wide x 51cm deep x 85cm high, (37in wide x 20in deep x 33in high) (2)
Footnotes
Two related console tables sold Christie's; one example, London, 23 May 2018, The Collector: English Furniture, Clocks and Works of Art, lot 108 and the other, Christie's, London, 223 May 2014, The English Collector, lot 1162. The former, dated c.1760, is described as 'in the manner of Thomas Johnson', whilst the latter is dated c.1755, and shows the influence of both Thomas Chippendale and Johnson. It is interesting to note that these both have later marble tops, whereas the offered tables are instead surmounted by what appear to be associated mid-18th century japanned surfaces. Another side table of comparable type sold from the collection of Lord Samuel of Wych Cross, 17 November 1989, lot 53.
Thomas Johnson (1714-c.1778) was a major carver and designer located on Grafton Street, in Soho. The works he produced, and in particular his drawings, had a significant impact upon English cabinet making of the later George II period, especially during the years 1750-1760. For the most part his designs are a whimsical interpretation of the then fashionable French Rococo style, whilst his furniture and mirrors are often suffused with naturalistic elements such as trees, or specific types of birds and animals. Among Johnson's most important publications are Twelve Girandoles (1755), One Hundred and Fifty New Designs (1758) and A New Room of Ornaments (1760).
Further versions of this approach, including those pieces executed in a similar Rococo vein, can be found amidst some of the designs published in all three editions of The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director, compiled by Chippendale between 1754 and 1762. In fact, cluster column legs, which are a prominent aspect of the tables that together form the present lot, appear to be found perhaps more often on the work of Chippendale than among the output of any of his contemporaries during this time.