A George II-style giltwood side table

UK: Greenford Park Warehouse

Lot Closed

April 11, 03:22 PM GMT

Estimate

7,000 - 10,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

the yellow marble top on a moulded egg-and-dart- and Greek-key-carved frieze, the cabriole legs joined by an apron with oak swags and foliate scrolls centred by a mask with ostrich feathers, the cabriole legs with lions heads to the knees and terminating in paw feet, the rails with two inventory stickers reading X.2614 / Gilt TABLE with Yellow Marble Top

85cm high, 140cm wide, 61.5cm deep; 2ft. 9 ½in., 4ft. 7in., 2ft. ¼in.

William Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme, acquired from M. Harris & Sons (Invoice 17 May 1918, MHDL 651, £120), in the Basement of the Hulme Art Gallery (X.Inv. X2614, catalogued as a 'Georgian table..about 1740' later annotated 'Found in 1938 at Thornton manor/Entrance Hall);

William Hulme Lever, 2nd Viscount Leverhulme, in the Entrance Hall at Thornton Manor by 1938 (T.Inv. T73)

Sotheby's, The Leverhulme Collection, 26th-28th June 2001, lot 303., lot 5.

Knight, Frank & Rutley, (a Catalogue of Chinese Porcelain, Furniture and Works of Art, sold by direction of the Executors of the late Rt. Honorable. Viscount Leverhulme, 10-11 June 1926, lot 252a.

The present lot replicates a table from Yarborough House, currently on display in the Monk's Parlour at Sir John Soane's Museum (MP63). Soane was responsible for designing an infirmary for the Royal Hospital at Chelsea that replaced Yarborough House in 1810 and according to early inventories of the museum, some of the original Yarborough furniture seems to have moved into his collection. Yarborough House had been the home of the Treasurer of the Royal Hospital, and as such was occupied by Sir Robert Walpole from around 1714 until his death in 1745, during which time the house appears to have been enlarged, possibly by Vanburgh. Lord Yarborough inherited the property in 1804, giving it his name, but sold it four years later to the Treasury who acquired it to allow for expansion of the Royal Hospital. The table at the Soane, which was originally gilded, has tentatively been attributed to John Vardy due to his position of Clerk of Works at Chelsea Hospital.¹

The 1^st Viscount Leverhulme (1851–1925), one of Victorian England’s most important collectors of fine and decorative art, started his life as William Lever, the son of a Lancashire grocer. After competently growing the family business, he became immensely successful with his company Sunlight Soap. With Victorian Britain becoming increasingly polluted, Leverhulme harnessed the increasing demand for cleaning products by being the first to efficiently mass-produce soap using vegetable oil. As well as putting his fortune towards philanthropy, he was a major art collector, and often used paintings in the advertising for Sunlight Soap.² Many of the gems of his collection are still on display the Lady Lever Art Gallery today, while many others were sold at Sotheby’s in June 2001 – bidding at these auctions reached over £9m, setting the record for a house sale at the time.³

¹ Peter Thornton, 'Soane's Kent Tables', Furniture History, 1993, pp. 59-65.

² For examples, see Sam Bytheway, ‘The art of advertising’, liverpoolmuseums.org.uk. Available at: <https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/stories/art-of-advertising> [accessed 22^nd March 2024]

³ ‘Treasure sale breaks UK auction record’, BBC News, 28^th June 2001. Available at: <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1411892.stm> [accessed 22^nd March 2024]