A GEORGE II STYLE CARVED WALNUT AND PARCEL GILT SIDE TABLE

Sir George Henry Sutherland (1866-1937), Cringletie, Peebleshire
The Collection of John Harris, Esq., London

This table was probably adapted and embellished with the arms of Sir George Henry Sutherland and his wife Arabella Elizabeth Wolfe (Murray), who were married in 1904, Sir George’s Scottish arms as they appear on the table being granted in 1915. Sir George held several important positions in colonial India, being President of the Bengal Chamber of Commerce (1900-1901), and then Sheriff of Calcutta in 1901 and 1908, being a Mercantile Member of the Bengal Legislative Council twice during this period. He married firstly Georgiana, daughter of Lieutenant General Sir George Plumptre Carr-Glynn, and secondly Arabella, daughter of Lieutenant General Sir James Wolfe Murray. The Murray’s ancestral home was at Blackbarony in Peebleshire which was refurbished in the 1840s by Alexander Roos and also enlarged in the 1840s when their other house at Ballencrief was destroyed by fire. The table was possibly part of the furnishings of either of these houses, before being changed and painted with armorials in the early 1900s.