A George III mahogany and satinwood crossbanded pembroke table circa 1775, by Thomas Chippendale

the serpentine crossbanded and inlaid top above a drawer and dummy drawer on shaped legs carved to the top with stylised palmettes, on shaped cabriole legs and terminating in scroll feet and leather castors

Commissioned  by Ninian Home for Paxton House, Berwickshire and thence at Paxton House by family descent to the present vendor

Recorded in Inventory and Valuation of the Furniture of Paxton House, dated 1828, compiled by John Veitch clerk to William Trotter, Upholsterers in Edinburgh: 

`Page 22
A mahogany Pembroke table 3ft 2in x 2ft 4in & 2ft 4 high with ogee shaped top and scroll legs.                                          12s',  (Paxton Archives)

Illustrated Alastair Rowan, Paxton House, Berwickshire II, Country Life, August 24 1967, pl.9.

Comparative literature

Christopher Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, 1978, 2 vols, vol 1, pp.273-275.

Anthony Coleridge Chippendale, Interior-Decorator and House- Furnisher, Apollo Magazine, January to June 1963

This table is in excellent condition. The colour and patina are both excellent. The top has some minor old marks and scratches and a small age crack. The colour to the top is very consistent throughout. One end is very dry and dark in colour. The small brass handles vary between the drawer and dummy drawer.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

The present Pembroke table and lot ?? post, share the important provenance of Paxton House, Berwickshire. The provenances importance lies primarily in the collaboration between two of the greatest names in architecture and cabinet making in the second half of the 18th century - Robert Adam and Thomas Chippendale.  Paxton is considered to be one of the major Chippendale houses exhibiting a range of furnishings from the quite ordinary to the truly sumptuous. The accounts covering a period March to July 1774 are published in full in Christopher Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, 1978, 2 vols, vol. I pp.273-275, and reveal the range of this order. The house and estate were purchased by Ninian Home in 1766 from his cousin Patrick Home for £15,000. Almost immediately the new owner commissioned the firm of Chippendale and Haig to furnish the house from top to bottom. The commission stands alongside Mersham le Hatch, Temple Newsham and Dumfries House as a testament to Chippendale’s French antique style as promoted by his 3^rd edition of the Director in 1762. Unfortunately, Home spent the majority of his tenure at Paxton living in Grenada (where he was eventually brutally murdered) and was unable to fully enjoy Chippendale’s extraordinary accomplishments.

The present lot is shown illustrated in the drawing room of Paxton House, Country Life August 24th 1967, (fig. 1) and it seems possible that it may have been originally commissioned for this room. As I have mentioned, accounts from Chippendale exist for some of the furniture commissioned from the firm for the house for 1774. These accounts are sadly incomplete and the present table does not feature in them, but correspondence seems to show, and it is accepted that the firm of Chippendale and Haig furnished the entire house. In a letter to Haig and Chippendale of 20^th June 1789 Ninian Home mentions  in passing the firm had furnished the dining room at Paxton in 1776 so it is clear that there were other bills that have now disappeared.   

An inventory of the contents of Paxton in 1828, prepared by Trotter and Co. of Edinburgh lists a Pembroke table and unusually for the time gives full dimensions of the table which exactly match those of the present lot, leaving no doubt that the entry refers to the same table. It therefore seems entirely plausible that this table formed part of the Chippendale commission.

Moreover, the table relates closely to a `family' of furniture known to have been supplied by Chippendale. Many of the characteristics of the present table can be seen in other items of furniture known to have been supplied by Chippendale. The present table is in the French style with its beautifully formed and carved cabriole legs. The shape of the legs is closely related to a pair of card tables supplied to Sir Lawrence Dundas for the blue drawing room at Dumfries House and illustrated by Christopher Gilbert, op. cit, p. 402. Moreover the design for the leg is closely based on a drawing for chair frames now preserved in the Metropolitan Museum.  The form of the leg embellished with Grecian palms that feature in this design is for a chair design of 1765 provided by the architect Robert Adam and executed by Thomas Chippendale for Sir Lawrence Dundas, Christopher Gilbert, op. cit., figs, 402 and 176.

The unusual figured top can also be seen on a Pembroke also in Dumfries house, attributed to Thomas Chippendale, see illustrated in the Christie`s sale catalogue for the sale of the contents of Dumfries House, 12th July 2007, lot 33. 

The present Pembroke table is in the French taste, a style which had evolved in England from the 1750s. The English interpretation of the cabriole form was invariably accomplished in a far finer detail than comparable French examples due to the use of mahogany as opposed to the softer beech or walnut. Hepplewhite in his Cabinet-Maker`s and Upholsterer`s Guide, of 1788 pl.62, illustrates this type of mahogany table with a comment `Pembroke tables are the most useful of this species of furniture: they may be of various shapes’

For comparison see an example of closely related form previously owned by Frederick Poke one of several distinguished collectors of English Furniture advised by the furniture historian R.W.Symonds  and whose collection was the subject of several articles written by Symonds and published in Connoisseur  magazine from 1939-1942, see Christie`s London 50 years of Collecting, The Decorative Arts of Georgian England 14<sup>th</sup> May 2003, lot 39, sold £128,450.This table is also illustrated in C. Claxton Stevens and S. Whittington`s, 18^th Century English Furniture, The Norman Adams Collection, Woodbridge, rev.ed. 1985, p.320. For other related examples see also Christie`s London, Important English Furniture 8<sup>th</sup> June 2006, lot 15, sold £102,000 and Christie`s New York, 21^st October 2005, lot 12, sold $102,000.