The Anglesey Tables

Lofts & Warner, London, An Inventory and Valuation […] At Plas Newydd, Anglesey, 1948, p.55, in the Main Staircase and Hall, ‘A pair [sic] of 3ft. 7in oblong tables with painted marble tops on gilt underframes, the frieze carved with shells and scrolls and X stretchers, (Private Family Archive);

Ralph Edwards, ‘Notable Private Collections – XXV, English Furniture at Plas Neywdd, Anglesey, Home of the Marquess of Anglesey', The Connoisseur, July- December 1955, one illustrated, p.242, pl. 4;

Christopher Hussey, 'Plas Neywdd, Anglesey, The Seat of the Marquess of Anglesey - I', Country Life, 1 December 1955, p. 1253 (one illustrated on the landing).

It was Ralph Edwards (op. cit., 1955, p.242), who first attributed the tables to James Moore based upon the example signed by Moore in the Royal Collection. He also discusses possible provenance, based upon the assumption that a group of giltwood furniture, in close proximity, at Erdigg in Denbighshire, was supplied by Moore and Gumley between 1722 and 1726, Moore is now thought not to have been involved at Erdigg.¹ Edwards writes, 'we may perhaps infer that this pair of tables was made for Plas Newydd'. However, they do not appear in the 1802 inventory of the house nor the 1769 and 1863 inventory of Beaudesert, the former family seat, and arguably more appropriate setting, in Staffordshire. More likely is that these tables were made for one of the Paget houses in or near London or acquired in the early 20th century. Certainly an extraordinary pair of tables at Plas Newydd, with portor marble tops supported by giltwood stands incorporating lions with fishtails were acquired in the early 20th century from Lord Shrewsbury for Beaudesert. There is even a likelihood that they came to Plas Newydd from Uxbridge House, the famous townhouse at 7 Burlington Gardens. This theory is supported by the fact that the house was lavishly decorated by the 3rd Duke of Queensberry, a furnishing scheme which is likely to have remained in place until the Paget family took up residence there in 1788 and changed its name to Uxbridge House.

^1. The mis-attribution of work by Moore at Erddig is discussed here (https://bifmo.furniturehistorysociety.org/entry/moore-james-snr-1670-1726)

Plas Newydd, Anglesey, in the Ante Room.

These tables are remarkable for their elegant restraint, combining touches of European design with an overall form that draws strongly on Chinese forms. In contrast to the focus on pagodas and mandarin figures characteristic of so-called chinoiserie in the later eighteenth century, the first decades of the eighteenth century saw English furniture absorb inspiration from Chinese design on a fundamental, formal level. George II chairs would be entirely different without their Chinese-influence splat backs, and there is a clear current of table design in the 1710s that reproduces the square legs and cool geometric feel of Ming high tables.

Caught between the Louis XIV-influenced style of Pelletier and the cabriole-legged gilt-gesso tables that were more common in the 1720s, tables in this Chinese-influenced style are rare and are usually associated with James Moore (c.1670-1726). The most famous example is a table signed Moore currently in the Throne Room of Buckingham Palace (RCIN 1102), which features the same square legs and vase-shaped feet as the present lot. It is possible that this table, is one of two detailed in a bill from Moore in 1722. The re-entrant corners on the top of this comparable example are taken from Chinese tables and trays of the period, while Adam Bowett argues that the all-over Greek key ornament “could derive from either classical European or Chinese art”.¹ A stand for a lacquer cabinet in the V&A, dating to around 1715, also has the same square legs, pierced apron and vase-shaped feet as the table in the Royal Collection (W.30:1 to 9-1958). Another table sharing these features, attributed to James Moore, sold at Sotheby’s London, 9^th July 1999, lot 51, and another one is at Euston Hall in Suffolk.² While the all-over Greek key on these tables gives them richer overall ornament, simpler examples also exist with smooth gilt surfaces like the present lot: a pair of stands for japanned cabinets, also attributed to Moore and with an X-stretcher similar to the one on the present lot, is at Boughton House,³ while a second Moore table in the Royal Collection also has a more restrained style of decoration (RCIN 31482). A table with similar legs and feet matched with a lacquer top, also attributed to James Moore, sold at Christie’s London, The Collection of Ann & Gordon Getty: Wheatland, 19^th October 2023, lot 221; two comparable tables, both with square legs joined by a similar stretcher to the present lot and one with the monogram of Baron Cadogan of Reading, are with Ronald Phillips.

¹ Adam Bowett, Early Georgian Furniture 1715-1740, Woodbridge, 2009, p.203, pl.5.5.

² Pictured in ‘Euston Hall, Suffolk – II’, Country Life, 17^th January 1957, p.104, fig.7.

³ Tessa Murdoch (ed.), Boughton House, The English Versailles, London, 1992, pl. 80.