A Pair of George III Style Mahogany Pedestals

Estimate

5,000 - 7,000 USD

bidding is closed

Description

height 4 ft. 11 1/4 in.; diameter 11 1/4 in.
123.2 cm; 28.6 cm

each with hexagonal top above leaf tips, fluting and a gadrooned edge, the frieze carved with urns and paterae, the tapering column with alternating chains of husks and beads, on a hexagonal base.

Provenance

The Collection of Archibald Van Beuren, Newport, Rhode Island

Sotheby’s, New York, anonymous sale, April 24, 25, 1987, lot 255

Catalogue Note

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE

Ralph Edwards and Percy Macquoid, The Dictionary of English Furniture, 1953, vol. III, p. 160, fig. 7

Christopher Gilbert, Furniture at Temple Newsam House and Lotherton Hall, 1978, vol. II, p. 301, item 364, ill. p. 302

This pair of pedestals appears to be en suite with the pair now in the collection of Leeds City Art Galleries (Gilbert, op. cit.). Although they are catalogued by Gilbert as circa 1775, he does note that ‘the exhibitionist character of the carving and the use of dark stain fuelled suspicions they were made for an ‘Adam style’ Edwardian interior’. The appearance of this pair certainly strengthens that thought, together with the fact that neither pair seems to have a firm provenance before 1900.

As Edwardian, they are certainly very interesting survivals from a fascinating period in the history of English furniture, when the contemporary designers and architects re-discovered the neo-classical style adapting it to the taste of newly wealthy patrons.