A large veined marble slab from a table, 18th century

By descent in the collection of the Earls of Home, latterly at The Hirsel, Berwickshire.

In inventories taken at Douglas Castle, Lanarkshire, from 1837 and 1844, there is a reference to a single marble topped table. The present lot may well have been a part of this piece. The scale of the slab and its location at the castle, the principle seat for the Earl's of Home, perhaps indicate a table of importance. It would certainly have been costly to import from Italy to Scotland. See, William Muir, Inventory and Valuation of Household Furniture [etc.] which belonged to the late Lord Douglas taken at Bothwell & Douglas Castles, May 1837, Douglas Castle, p. 23, 'Entrance Hall / Oak Table with Marble Top’, and, Anon, Inventory and Valuation of Moveable Property at Douglas Castle, April, 1844, 'Stair Case and Upper Lobby / Carved Table with Marble Top’.

From 1757, Archibald Douglas, 1st Duke of Douglas (1694–1761) began construction of an ambitious castellated mansion at Douglas on the site of a much earlier house. He commissioned the Adam brothers to create a new family seat, a gothic style mansion that was ambitious in scale. His death in 1761 curtailed the project, but not before much of the building work had taken place.