Lot 157
  • 157

An important pair of George III painted and parcel-gilt satinwood pier tables, circa 1795

Estimate
100,000 - 150,000 GBP
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Description

  • painted and parcel-gilt satinwood
  • 85.5cm. high, 149cm. wide, 49.5cm. deep; 2ft. 9½in., 4ft. 10¾ in., 1ft. 7½ in.
the D-shaped tops veneered in satinwood crossbanded with tulipwood and painted along the borders with garlands of flowers, fruit and foliage within sycamore stringing, the breakfront friezes with central rectangular plaques painted in grisaille on natural wood grounds with putti representing Winter and A Sacrifice to Hymen after G.B. Cipriani, flanked by carved and gilt cornucopiæ, oak-leaf garlands and rosettes on a white-lacquered ground, raised on four round white-lacquered and parcel gilt tapering and fluted legs ending in acanthus toupie feet

Provenance

George Granville Leveson-Gower, 2nd Marquess of Stafford, created Duke of Sutherland 1833 (1758-1833);
thence probably by descent to his son, George Granville Leveson-Gower, 2nd Duke of Sutherland (1786-1861);
possibly W. S. Hobson, Leicester;
James Orrock, London, circa 1901;
Senator William Andrews Clark (1839-1925), New York;
Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 1926;
Sotheby's New York, A Celebration of the English Country House, 26 Apr 2008, lot 203 ($325,000)

Exhibited

The Blue Room of the White House, 1972-2002 (Fig. 4)

Literature

Lucy Wood, The Lady Lever Art Gallery Catalogue of Commodes, London, 1993, p. 33, fig.23, illustrated in a view from the Front Drawing Room to the Back Drawing Room at 48 Bedford Square (Fig. 2).

Condition

A well executed pair of tables in good conserved condition. The back corners of the tops have had extended slightly to make them flush. The japanned decoration to the tops in very fine state with minimal retouching. The legs with some minor losses and chips commensurate with age and use.
"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."

Catalogue Note

This elegant pair of tables rank among the finest examples of late 18th century console tables to survive and belong to a suite of furniture first recorded in 1824 in the 'Principal Drawing Room' at West Hill House, Wandsworth, Surrey, an estate added to the extensive holdings of the 2nd Marquess of Stafford (later 1st Duke of Sutherland) in 1825. Part of a much larger suite, the 'Inventory of the Elegant Furniture, Farming Stock, and Garden Implements & Tools etc., The Property of the Most Noble Marquess of Stafford at his Mansion West Hill, Wandsworth' details the room was furnished with (Fig. 1):

'An Elegant Square 7ft Sofa in massive carved white and gold frames thick hair Squab back and ends stuffd in white India Dimity beautifully painted with medallions of various devices and handsome flower borders on carved & gilt legs castors carved and gilt legs and Castors, carved and gilt knull mouldings raffle leaves & other ornaments & eight Chintz Cotton Covers

 A Ditto ensuite

 An elegant 4ft 9 Ditto ensuite

A Do ............... ...     ensuite

Twelve elegant Square back & seat Elbow Chairs to correspond in carved white & gold Frames ensuite & eight Chintz Cotton Cases On Castors

Eight Ditto to correspond with round seats and eight Chintz Cotton Cases'

A Handsome 5 ft shaped front Satinwood banded  & painted pier Table on a support white and gold carved frame fluted legs & imitation Marble plinth & tablet in ctre

A Ditto ensuite'

The mansion on the West Hill estate was originally designed by the local architect Jesse Gibson (c.1748-1828) of Hackney in Middlesex for John Anthony Rucker, a merchant from Hamburg who purchased the estate in 1789. The estate, which bordered both Putney and Wandsworth, was expanded in 1802 by D. H. Rucker, possibly his son, and was subsequently purchased from him in April of 1825 by George Granville Leveson-Gower, 2nd Marquess of Stafford, later 1st Duke of Sutherland, in 1825.  It is, however, clear from existing household accounts that it had actually been leased unfurnished by the Marquess from 1805, the 1824 inventory of the 'Elegant Furniture' confirming that these were at the time of his occupancy his own property.

Unfortunately no contemporary illustrations or descriptions appear to remain either of the exterior or interior and, although the house still exists, it is now 'A very large, grand Italianate affair, by W. P. Griffith, 1864, built around a c.18 core' (Bridget Cherry and Nikolaus Pevsner, London 2: South, 1983, London, p. 683) and none of the earlier interiors have survived.

It is not clear as to why the house became one of the many residences of George Granville, 2nd Marquess of Stafford (1758-1833), who was the eldest son of the 1st Marquess by his second wife, Lady Louisa Egerton, daughter of the 1st Duke of Bridgewater. He entered the House of Commons for the second time in 1787 as member for Stafford until 1798 when he was called up to the House of Lords as Baron Gower of Stittenham.  In 1790 he became Ambassador to France until the embassy was closed in 1792.  He was appointed to the office of the joint post-master general in 1799, a position he held until 1810 after 1807 he took little active part in politics.  In 1785 he married Elizabeth Sutherland, countess of Sutherland in her own right, who owned vast estates of her own in Scotland.  He also inherited the sizeable Bridgewater canal and estates, including Cleveland House, St. James's, as well as an impressive art collection from his maternal uncle, the last Duke of Bridgewater. In the same year, upon the death of his father, he inherited the Stittenham estate in Yorkshire, and the extensive estates at Trentham, Staffordshire, Wolverhampton, and Littleshall in Shropshire.  In London he inherited Gower House, Whitehall which was sold to Robert Smith, 1st Baron Carrington in 1806-7.

The estate at West Hill was therefore a very minor possession of the Marquess's, although the present suite of furniture, and other pieces itemized in the inventory, indicate that the furnishings were both sophisticated and of high quality. However, the design of the suite of seat furniture and the pier tables in particular indicates a date of the 1790s rather than the latter part of the first decade of the 19th century. It is plausible that they were removed from one of his many estates or from Gower House or Cleveland House.

The estate was sold by the 2nd Duke of Sutherland around 1842 to a J. A. Berenson, the price of £45,000 including furniture and fixtures but it is unclear if the present chairs and pier tables remained in the house at this time. Records which accompanied the chairs when they entered the Corcoran Gallery indicate that during the latter part of the nineteenth century and early twentieth century they were in the collections of the Hon. Michael Sandys, W. S. Hobson, and that of James Orrock.  Michael Sandys, 5th Baron Sandys of Ombersley, Co. Worcester is not known to have either a connection with the Stafford family, or as a collector, although Hobson, who was a wealthy businessman from Leicester, is known as a collector.  He was also a friend of James Orrock, who was from Edinburgh, and had a fascinating career, firstly as a dentist in Nottingham, then as an artist, collector and dealer in London after 1866.  He was a passionate supporter of 'the creation of a gallery of British art through numerous articles, lectures and meetings' constantly deploring 'the refusal of the National Gallery to buy British art' (Edward Morris, 'James Orrock, dentist, patron, collector, dealer, curator, connoisseur, forger, propagandist', Visual Culture in Britain Journal, vol. 6, issue 2, Winter 2005).  'He arranged his own late-eighteenth-century house at 48 Bedford Square as a museum to display his own collection in the way that he hoped that the new gallery of British art behind the National Gallery would be arranged.  There his late-eighteenth-century paintings and watercolours were hung above fine furniture of the same period' (Morris, op. cit.).  A photograph, c. 1903, illustrated by Lucy Wood, The Lady Lever Art Gallery Catalogue of Commodes, London, 1993, p. 33, fig.23, View from the Front Drawing Room to the Back Drawing Room at 48 Bedford Square, illustrates one of the present chairs and one of the pier tables (Fig. 2).  Other photographs illustrated in Byron Webber, James Orrock, R. I., 1903, show the other pier table and a sofa, and another chair together with another pier table with shelves, the central tablet with a martial trophy; all these photographs illustrate the tables supported on conforming marbleized plinths. Orrock was known amongst his friends and associates, who included J.H. Duveen and William Lever, later Viscount Leverhulme, as 'The Oracle', increased his wealth by both dealing and collecting, selling the latter both paintings and satinwood furniture.  The date at which the present group of pier tables and seat furniture left his collection is unclear, as is their subsequent history until they entered the collection of the Corcoran Gallery in 1926, although it is believed that they were at some point with the New York firm of French and Company. Adding to the illustrious provenance of these tables, the present lot was exhibited in the Blue Room of the White House after its re-decoration in April, 1972, remaining there until July 2002.

As with the seat furniture from the Stafford Suite, the form of the pier tables is also related to designs for 'Pier Tables' in Thomas Sheraton's Drawing Book, plate IV, the author noting that 'As pier tables are merely for ornament under a glass, they are generally made very light, and the style of finishing the is rich and elegant. Sometimes the tops are solid marble, but most commonly veneered in rich satin, or other valuable wood, with a cross-band on the outside, a  border about two inches richly japanned, and a narrow cross-band beyond it, to go all round.  The frames are commonly gold, or white and burnished gold'.  The 'rich' satinwood veneers to the tops of the present tables certainly conform to Sheraton's description, as does the 'richly japanned' border with its brightly coloured band of summer flowers.  Their original use as pier tables is confirmed by the now in-filled slots on the back edges which would have originally supported flat-bottomed pier mirrors.

The two tablets, which are painted en grisaille, depict respectively 'Winter' and 'A Sacrifice to Hymen', both originally taken from antique intaglio gems, and it is interesting to note that their published source is Michelangelo Pergolesi's Designs for various ornaments etc.1777-1801, the former signed 'G. B. Ciprani Invt.' and 'F.. Bartolozzi Sculpt.', the latter signed 'G. B. Ciprani, del' and 'F. Bartolozzi Sculp.' (Fig. 3). The influence of these engravings was far reaching and they are also a source of inspiration for the designs of sculptor John Flaxman for his work for the potter Josiah Wedgwood in the 1770s.

In the 1824 inventory of the furniture in the 'Principal Drawing Room' at West Hill, each table has a 'Marble plinth' which were present when they were in the collection of James Orrock. This form of support does not conform to any of Sheraton's designs and is, in fact, a form which was more commonly used in the early nineteenth century.  It is possible that they were added to the tables when they were first placed at West Hill, and their presence might confirm that the suite as a whole could have been made for another residence of the Stafford's.