A Regency Gilt-Bronze Mounted and Brass-Inlaid Rosewood and Satinwood-Strung Drum Table and Bookstand, Circa 1810

Almost certainly commissioned by George William Frederick Osborne, 6th Duke of Leeds (1775–1838) at Hornby Castle, Yorkshire;

The collection of the Dukes of Leeds at Hornby Castle;

Sotheby’s London, 14 July 1961, lot 157 (where sold to Mallett for £1,800);

Mallett, London;

Partridge Fine Arts, London;

Gerald Edward Coke, Jenkyn Place, Hampshire;

Christie's London, The Coke Collection from Jenkyn Place, 17 October 1996, lot 105;

Partridge Fine Arts, London;

Private Collection, New York;

Christie’s New York, 15 April 2005, lot 170.

Almost certainly 'An inlaid rosewood & Buhl Circular Lib’y Table on 6 Pillars & Claws & Cont’g 4 drawers & Circular Book Stand on top with 4 Shelves', Inventory of Furniture at Hornby Castle, Selected by Her Grace the Dowager Duchess of Leeds, 1839, no. 205, p.20 [Yorkshire Archaeological Society, DD5/12/66]

The Regency period ushered in numerous innovations in furniture in the form of new technical inventions – one of these is the well-known Gillows extending dining table, first patented on 1 May 1800,¹ and a similarly characteristic Regency piece is the revolving bookshelf. This standalone unit, with shelves that revolve independently around a central column, allowed for a completely new way of distributing books around a room and first appeared in interiors in 1808, the year it was first patented by Benjamin Crosby and retailed by Morgan & Sanders.² Rudolph Ackermann, ever the granular chronicler of Regency taste and decorating trends, praised their versatility and specified that when researching in a library, it allowed for the most important reference books to be “placed within reach of the right hand, and by a turn of the shelves afford immediate access to any volume it contains, without the necessity of quitting the seat”.³

Ackermann would likely have been pleased, then, with the ingenuity of a library table that integrates the revolving bookshelf into its top, as on the present lot. This is far less common than the standard bookshelf-only unit, though there is an example in the Royal Collection (RCIN 53534) and at Florence Court in County Fermanagh (NT 630609), and there have been a few examples at auction.⁴ Another example is also illustrated in Regency Furniture 1795–1830,⁵ but of all these comparable examples, the present lot is by far the richest in ornament – the table is not only strung and cross-banded with decorative variety, but it features brass inlay that reflects the courtly fashion during the Regency for inlaid ‘Buhl’ work that recalled Louis XIV styles.

The other examples of bookcase-tables all share with the present lot the amusing trompe l’oeil dividers disguised as leather-bound books. The selection of books represented is illuminating: alongside the obligatory classics of antiquity like Euripides and Cicero, this fictitious library includes quite a range of genres. Economic thought is present with The Wealth of Nations (1776), and Continental philosophy through the works of Christoph Christian Sturm (1740–1786) and the encyclopédiste Jean-François Marmontel (1723–1799). Poetry is represented too, not just England’s great epicist John Milton but also translations of Dante. More satirical works by Alexander Pope (1688–1744) are also included, along with a mock-heroic poem Hudibras (1678). The selection is erudite and well-rounded but not too controversial, probably with an eye to the variety of tastes in potential buyers.

Given the rare combination of form and inlaid decoration, it can be strongly assumed that this table is the one mentioned in the 1839 inventory following the death of the 6^th Duke of Leeds, describing as object 205 in the Third Drawing Room as an “inlaid rosewood & Buhl Circular Lib’y Table on 6 Pillars & Claws & Cont’g 4 drawers & Circular Book Stand on top with 4 Shelves”.⁶ The 6^th Duke of Leeds held various political roles including Privy Councillor after 1827 and also served as Master of the Horse for several years. The Ashmolean Museum holds a resplendent portrait by Thomas Lawrence of his father (WA2014.76), who was Foreign Secretary in the 1780s. After 1811, Hornby Castle was the principal seat of the family, but had to be broken up and sold off as a result of the gambling debts accrued by the 10^th Duke (1862–1927).

¹ S. E. Stuart, Gillows of Lancaster and London 1730–1840, Woodbridge 2008, vol I, p.240.

² See BIFMO, ‘Morgan & Sanders (1801–1820)’ <https://bifmo.furniturehistorysociety.org/entry/morgan-sanders-1801-20> and ‘Crosby, Benjamin (1808)’ <https://bifmo.furniturehistorysociety.org/entry/crosby-benjamin> [accessed 26th June 2025]

³ P. Agius, Ackermann’s Regency Furniture & Interiors, Marlborough 1984, p.49.

⁴ See, for example, Sotheby’s London, 10th November 2015, lot 168 and Christie’s London, 30th March 2011, lot 20.

⁵ M. Jourdain and R. Fastnedge, Regency Furniture 1795–1830, London 1965, p.83.

⁶ Inventory of Furniture at Hornby Castle, Selected by Her Grace the Dowager Duchess of Leeds, 1839, no. 205, p.20.