- 142
A pair of George II carved giltwood and gesso side tables
bidding is closed
Description
A pair of George II carved giltwood and gesso side tables
circa 1745, attributed to James Pascall
the concave sided tops with scrolling acanthus decoration on a punched ground, each centred by a cartouche with the monogram 'M' beneath an Earl's coronet, the conforming blind 'Chinese' fretwork decorated friezes each centred by a grotesque mask above shell and icicle motifs hung with floral swags, the caryatid cabriole legs with acanthus leaf knees and scroll feet
87 cm. high, 263 cm. wide, 60 cm. deep; 2 ft. 10 in., 5 ft. 4 in., 1 ft. 11 3/4 in.
Provenance:
Possibly George Parker, 2nd Earl of Macclesfield
Frank Partridge & Sons, Ltd., invoice 1st January 1939, £500
This exceptional pair of side tables are unusual in having a mahogany carcass both to the legs and the top. Tables of the first half of the 18th century are generally gessoed and gilded over oak on the top and pine on the legs. In the wake of Adam Bowett's research our notion of the early use of mahogany as restricted to luxury pieces is changing, and it is now understood that mahogany was initially imported as a joinery wood. During this period therefore mahogany would not have commanded the high price once assumed, and might have presented itself as an alterative to oak as a ground for gesso. These tables are also distinguished by the combined use of blind 'Chinese' fretwork, which securely places them in the 1740s, and the use of heavily carved gesso tops, which by the 1740s is considered stylistically retardataire, and usually found on tables of twenty years earlier.
A pair of console tables by James Pascall of 1746 at Temple Newsam, Yorkshire, have comparably worked gilt-gesso tops, which notably are over mahogany, although the legs are pine (illustrated Christopher Gilbert, Furniture at Temple Newsam House and Lotherton Hall, vol. II, Leeds, pp.358-9.). These two tables share further similiarities with the present lot, being conceived in a comparable early rococo style, particularly noticable in the riot of foliate motifs which run across the top. Another pair of side tables also by Pascall and formerly at Temple Newsam have strong affinities with the current pair (illustrated Francis Lenygon, Furniture in England from 1660-1760, London, 2nd ed, 1920, fig. 211). Both have friezes centred by grotesque masks between festoons richly decorated with fruit; curvilinear legs to front and back headed by masks; and legs terminating with scrolled feet decorated with foliage which appears to grow upwards from the toes. Although some individual motifs differ between the two pieces, they share a comparable conception and would appear to be the product of the same craftsman.
James Pascall, and his wife, Ann, worked at 'The Golden Head' on Long Acre in Covent Garden. They are first recorded there in 1733 and although James died in 1746-7, his wife continued to run the business from this site until February 1754. Their only securely attributed and documented pieces are the above described tables together with a set of twenty chairs, four sofas and a daybed, eight candlestands, a firescreen, and a pair of girandoles, all at Temple Newsam. They were made for Henry, 7th Viscount Irwin in 1745-7, to furnish the gallery which was completely redesigned between 1738 and 1745. In total the furniture cost a prodigious £376 17s 9d, which as Gilbert notes, provides an argument for Pascall's status as 'one of the foremost craftsmen of the period' (Christopher Gilbert,'The Temple Newsam Suite of early Georgian gilt furniture,' Connoisseur, February 1968, p.88). Remarkably, a letter survives attesting to the authorship of Pascall's own workshop in executing these pieces (Geoffrey Beard & Christopher Gilbert (eds.), Dictionary of English Furniture Makers 1660-1840, Leeds, 1986, p.679.)
The present pair are indebted to French models, particular the designs of Nicolas Pineau. A design for a table with female term and inwardly curving legs and similar scolloped-shaped sides was published by Pineau in his Nouveaux Desseins de Pieds de Tables et de Vases et Consoles de sculpture en bois, Paris, 1734, which were copied in engravings by Thomas Langley and published by his brother, the architect, landscape gardener and designer, Batty Langley (d. 1751) in The City and Country Builder's and Workman's Treasury of Designs, London, 1740. The lightness of these tables and the present lot compared to the 'heavier' 'English' rococo furniture from, for example, Hinton House (now in the Victoria & Albert Museum, W.35-1964), might reflect Pascall's French origins (Carl Peter Kaellgren, Stately and Formal: Side, Pier and Console Tables in England, 1700-1800, 2 vols., 1987, PhD disseration, University of Delaware, vol. 1, pp.143-5.)
These tables were probably commissioned by George Parker, 2nd Earl of Macclesfield (c. 1697-1764). This is suggested by the large M surmounted by an Earl's coronet on the decorated tops. Lord Macclesfield suceeded his father in 1732. In 1736 he purchased 11, St. James's Square, and his brother-in-law Sir William Heathcote purchased no. 10. The latter then employed Henry Flitcroft to build his new house on the site; it is not known whether Lord Macclesfield also employed Flitcroft: the relevant papers do not survive. In commissioning furniture decorated with the family cypher Lord Macclesfield was reflecting the taste of his father who commissioned the celebrated suite of gilded tables by James Moore. These are similarly decorated, with a Baron's coronet, as they predate the 1st Earl's elevation to an earldom in 1721. Moreover, as a Whig MP for Wallingsford between 1722 and 1729 he would have known Henry, 7th Viscount Irwin, at that date also a Whig MP and, as already stated, the patron of Pascall.
George Parker, 2nd Earl of Macclesfield, the celebrated astronomer, had early in life taken instruction in mathematics from De Moivre and William Jones. His father's position as Lord Chief Justice enabled his appointment for life as one of the Tellers of the Exchequer, a lucrative post. Through his marriage to Mary Lane he also added to his wealth. This enabled him to finance his astrological interests, building his own observatory in 1739. He was much praised for his scientific knowledge. Chesterfield said of him that he was 'One of the greatest mathematicians and astronomers in Europe'. His interest in the fine arts was equally acute. He made a Grand Tour in 1720-22, and purchased sculpture and works of art for Shirburn Castle and for his home in St James's Square.
circa 1745, attributed to James Pascall
the concave sided tops with scrolling acanthus decoration on a punched ground, each centred by a cartouche with the monogram 'M' beneath an Earl's coronet, the conforming blind 'Chinese' fretwork decorated friezes each centred by a grotesque mask above shell and icicle motifs hung with floral swags, the caryatid cabriole legs with acanthus leaf knees and scroll feet
87 cm. high, 263 cm. wide, 60 cm. deep; 2 ft. 10 in., 5 ft. 4 in., 1 ft. 11 3/4 in.
Provenance:
Possibly George Parker, 2nd Earl of Macclesfield
Frank Partridge & Sons, Ltd., invoice 1st January 1939, £500
This exceptional pair of side tables are unusual in having a mahogany carcass both to the legs and the top. Tables of the first half of the 18th century are generally gessoed and gilded over oak on the top and pine on the legs. In the wake of Adam Bowett's research our notion of the early use of mahogany as restricted to luxury pieces is changing, and it is now understood that mahogany was initially imported as a joinery wood. During this period therefore mahogany would not have commanded the high price once assumed, and might have presented itself as an alterative to oak as a ground for gesso. These tables are also distinguished by the combined use of blind 'Chinese' fretwork, which securely places them in the 1740s, and the use of heavily carved gesso tops, which by the 1740s is considered stylistically retardataire, and usually found on tables of twenty years earlier.
A pair of console tables by James Pascall of 1746 at Temple Newsam, Yorkshire, have comparably worked gilt-gesso tops, which notably are over mahogany, although the legs are pine (illustrated Christopher Gilbert, Furniture at Temple Newsam House and Lotherton Hall, vol. II, Leeds, pp.358-9.). These two tables share further similiarities with the present lot, being conceived in a comparable early rococo style, particularly noticable in the riot of foliate motifs which run across the top. Another pair of side tables also by Pascall and formerly at Temple Newsam have strong affinities with the current pair (illustrated Francis Lenygon, Furniture in England from 1660-1760, London, 2nd ed, 1920, fig. 211). Both have friezes centred by grotesque masks between festoons richly decorated with fruit; curvilinear legs to front and back headed by masks; and legs terminating with scrolled feet decorated with foliage which appears to grow upwards from the toes. Although some individual motifs differ between the two pieces, they share a comparable conception and would appear to be the product of the same craftsman.
James Pascall, and his wife, Ann, worked at 'The Golden Head' on Long Acre in Covent Garden. They are first recorded there in 1733 and although James died in 1746-7, his wife continued to run the business from this site until February 1754. Their only securely attributed and documented pieces are the above described tables together with a set of twenty chairs, four sofas and a daybed, eight candlestands, a firescreen, and a pair of girandoles, all at Temple Newsam. They were made for Henry, 7th Viscount Irwin in 1745-7, to furnish the gallery which was completely redesigned between 1738 and 1745. In total the furniture cost a prodigious £376 17s 9d, which as Gilbert notes, provides an argument for Pascall's status as 'one of the foremost craftsmen of the period' (Christopher Gilbert,'The Temple Newsam Suite of early Georgian gilt furniture,' Connoisseur, February 1968, p.88). Remarkably, a letter survives attesting to the authorship of Pascall's own workshop in executing these pieces (Geoffrey Beard & Christopher Gilbert (eds.), Dictionary of English Furniture Makers 1660-1840, Leeds, 1986, p.679.)
The present pair are indebted to French models, particular the designs of Nicolas Pineau. A design for a table with female term and inwardly curving legs and similar scolloped-shaped sides was published by Pineau in his Nouveaux Desseins de Pieds de Tables et de Vases et Consoles de sculpture en bois, Paris, 1734, which were copied in engravings by Thomas Langley and published by his brother, the architect, landscape gardener and designer, Batty Langley (d. 1751) in The City and Country Builder's and Workman's Treasury of Designs, London, 1740. The lightness of these tables and the present lot compared to the 'heavier' 'English' rococo furniture from, for example, Hinton House (now in the Victoria & Albert Museum, W.35-1964), might reflect Pascall's French origins (Carl Peter Kaellgren, Stately and Formal: Side, Pier and Console Tables in England, 1700-1800, 2 vols., 1987, PhD disseration, University of Delaware, vol. 1, pp.143-5.)
These tables were probably commissioned by George Parker, 2nd Earl of Macclesfield (c. 1697-1764). This is suggested by the large M surmounted by an Earl's coronet on the decorated tops. Lord Macclesfield suceeded his father in 1732. In 1736 he purchased 11, St. James's Square, and his brother-in-law Sir William Heathcote purchased no. 10. The latter then employed Henry Flitcroft to build his new house on the site; it is not known whether Lord Macclesfield also employed Flitcroft: the relevant papers do not survive. In commissioning furniture decorated with the family cypher Lord Macclesfield was reflecting the taste of his father who commissioned the celebrated suite of gilded tables by James Moore. These are similarly decorated, with a Baron's coronet, as they predate the 1st Earl's elevation to an earldom in 1721. Moreover, as a Whig MP for Wallingsford between 1722 and 1729 he would have known Henry, 7th Viscount Irwin, at that date also a Whig MP and, as already stated, the patron of Pascall.
George Parker, 2nd Earl of Macclesfield, the celebrated astronomer, had early in life taken instruction in mathematics from De Moivre and William Jones. His father's position as Lord Chief Justice enabled his appointment for life as one of the Tellers of the Exchequer, a lucrative post. Through his marriage to Mary Lane he also added to his wealth. This enabled him to finance his astrological interests, building his own observatory in 1739. He was much praised for his scientific knowledge. Chesterfield said of him that he was 'One of the greatest mathematicians and astronomers in Europe'. His interest in the fine arts was equally acute. He made a Grand Tour in 1720-22, and purchased sculpture and works of art for Shirburn Castle and for his home in St James's Square.