A GEORGE II MAHOGANY TRIPOD KETTLE OR CANDLE STAND, CIRCA 1740

Percival D. Griffiths Esq. Sandridgebury, Hertfordshire

Frank Partridge, New York

The Collection of J.P Argenti, Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, 13 December 1947 lot 350

Sotheby's New York, 13 December 1986, lot 212

R. W. Symonds, The Present State of Old English Furniture (London 1921), ill. fig. 70

R. W. Symonds, English Furniture from Charles II to George II (London 1929), ill. p. 192, fig. 195

The Noel Terry Collection of Furniture and Clocks, Fairfax House, York (York 1987), no.122 p. 124

H. Avray Tipping, English Furniture of the Cabriole Period (London 1922), plate XXV

This stand was formerly in the possession of Percival D. Griffiths Esq., who was advised by the pioneering furniture historian R. W. Symonds (1889-1958). Griffiths was one of a group of English furniture connoisseurs whose collections were created under the aegis of Symonds, including Geoffrey Blackwell, H. J. Joel, Samuel Messer, Eric Moller, and James Thursby Pelham. Symonds placed a particular emphasis on quality of design, construction and colour and valued works for their intrinsic merit regardless of their provenance. Symonds reproduced many examples from the Griffiths collection his publications, including English Furniture from Charles II to George II (1929) which was illustrated exclusively with Griffiths works. After his death in 1937 the collection was sold at Christie's London on 10 May 1939, though several pieces were sold privately by Symonds prior to the auction, the present lot included.

This work represents an early use of mahogany and is an unusual size, taller than most tripod kettle stands but shorter than typical candlestands which normally measure over three feet in height. Symonds described it alternatively as a 'tripod coffee table' (1921) and a tea-kettle stand (1929). A related stand of comparable height, also with acanthus carving on the baluster column and paw feet and unusually made of rosewood, is in the Noel Terry Collection at Fairfax House, York; this was recently reunited with its pair that appeared on the market in early 2019 (Woolley and Wallis, Salisbury, 9 January 2019, lot 145).