A Fine Pair of George II Carved Giltwood Eagle Marble Topped Console Tables

formed as boldly carved and detailed eagles with outspread wings and standing on rock–work bases, supporting variegated white, yellow, and brown marble tops of serpentine form with molded edges. Regilt.

Mallett & Son (Antiques) Ltd., London
Partridge Fine Arts PLC

G. Bernard Hughes, "The Eagle Under the Table," Country Life, July 22, 1971, pp. 224-225, fig. 1
Partridge Fine Arts PLC, London, Recent Acquisitions 1997, no. 13, pp. 32, 33

In good restored condition; re-gilt; Marble tops later. The eagles now with a later T form back support which supports the marble top. The top of each eagle head now with a large protruding dowel with supports the front of the marble top. Each with some old age cracks to rock-work base and to tail of eagle requiring some filling-in. One eagle head appears to have been broken and repaired. The other eagle with large chip to gilding and gesso to the top of the beak approximately 1 in by 1/2 in. Small chips to gilding to feet and extremities.
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.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Tables with eagle supports are commonly described 'in the manner of William Kent', although only one published design by him is recorded which has any relationship to this form, and there are no documented examples which can with certainty be attributed to him. Kent's design was used as a tail-piece in Pope's edition of Homer's Odyssey, which was published 1725/26, and shows two fighting eagles with out-spread wings standing on a large pier table with a Greek-key ornamented frame above a solid, shaped base ornamented with Bacchic masks and garlands. An interesting trade card, dated 1739, of Francis Brodie, the Edinburgh cabinetmaker, illustrates a group of furniture within an interior, including a related console table with an eagle support.

A very similar pair of eagle-form console tables without a frieze were in the collection of Lord and Lady Louis Mountbatten and were photographed in situ at their newly renovated penthouse apartment at Brook House, designed by the American decorator Mrs. Cosden, in Country Life, June 24, 1939.

The same tables were to become part of another grand interior namely that of Britwell House, Oxfordshire, the home of David and Lady Pamela Hicks.  In 1960 David Hicks, who was becoming very famous as an interior designer, married Lady Pamela Mountbatten, daughter of Lord and Lady Louis Mountbatten.  The same year, he bought Britwell House, Oxfordshire, an intimate Palladian brick mansion with magnificent baroque interior architecture, which had been built in 1727-29 by Sir Edward Simeon, Bart.  Hicks ultimately sold the house and the contents at Sotheby's, London, March 20-22, 1979.  Britwell was the subject of two Country Life articles in 1972, one of which illustrates the tables within the grand Palladian interior of the entrance hall.