A NEAR PAIR OF LATE GEORGE III PARCEL-GILT POLYCHROME-JAPANNED WHITE-PAINTED OCCASIONAL TABLES
A NEAR PAIR OF LATE GEORGE III PARCEL-GILT POLYCHROME-JAPANNED WHITE-PAINTED OCCASIONAL TABLES
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A NEAR PAIR OF LATE GEORGE III PARCEL-GILT POLYCHROME-JAPANNED WHITE-PAINTED OCCASIONAL TABLES

LATE 18TH/EARLY 19TH CENTURY, REDECORATED

Details
A NEAR PAIR OF LATE GEORGE III PARCEL-GILT POLYCHROME-JAPANNED WHITE-PAINTED OCCASIONAL TABLES
LATE 18TH/EARLY 19TH CENTURY, REDECORATED
Each with octagonal top with a Chinoiserie scene on a white ground within a green border, the baluster shaft with quadripartite base
One: 27½ in. (70 cm.) high 30¼ in. (77 cm.) wide; 29½ in. (75 cm.) deep
The other: 27½ in (70 cm.) high; 27¼ in. (72 cm.) wide; 27¾ in. (70.5 cm.) deep
Provenance
Almost certainly commissioned by Francis Russell, 5th Duke of Bedford (1765-1802) for Oakley House, Oakley, Bedfordshire, as part of the furnishings acquired following the remodelling of the House by Henry Holland (1745-1806) between 1789 and 1792 and by descent at Oakley until sold with the house by
Herbrand Russell, 11th Duke of Bedford (1858-1949) in 1919 to his cousin,
Oliver Russell, 2nd Baron Ampthill (1869-1935) following whose death the house was sold and the contents dispersed.
F. Jones, Tavistock Street, Bedford, where acquired 19 February 1936 (£12.10s).
Literature
One table recorded in the 'Sitting Room', the pair [to it] in the 'Library' in 'Inventory of sundry personal effects etc. at Woburn Abbey etc. the property of His Grace Francis the 7th Duke of Bedford K.G. deceased Taken 1861 by William Aspinwall 70 Grosvenor Street W.'.
'Two RA's at home: Sir Albert Richardson at Ampthill, James Fitton at Dulwich', House and Garden, XIII, 1958, p. 78, illustrated in the drawing-room.
S. Houfe, Sir Albert Richardson, The Professor, Luton, 1980, p. 96. S. Houfe, 'Furniture for a Hunting Box', Country Life, 14 March 1991, pp. 54-56, figs. 2 and 6.
Exhibited
Woburn, Woburn Abbey, Henry Holland, 23 April - 7 May 1971, p. 6, no. 8.

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Lot Essay

These 'japanned' tea tables, from Oakley House, combine European octagonal form with Oriental elements, which include feet that form small stems, and lacquer work depicting convincing Chinese landscapes, clouds, mountains, ancients, boats and ho-ho birds (S. Houfe, 'Furniture for a Hunting Box', Country Life, 14 March 1991, p. 56). Their form was possibly based upon '4 satinwood pillar & claw octagon tables' supplied by Seddon, Sons & Shackleton at a cost of £20 to the 5th Duke of Bedford for Woburn Abbey in 1793 (Ed. G. Beard, C. Gilbert, Dictionary of English Furniture Makers 1660-1840, Leeds, 1986, p. 797). 'Claw' describes the peg feet of the present tables, illustrated in engraved designs signed Hepplewhite for 'claws' in the Cabinet-Maker's London Book of Prices (1793).
In the 1861 inventory, one of the present tables was in the 'Sitting Room', and its pair in the 'Library' at Oakley House, described respectively as, 'An Octagon Centre Table on pillar & claws Japanned White', and 'An Octagon Table on pillar & claw Japanned white & gold Holland Cover'. The significant amount of white japanned furniture recorded at Oakley in the 1861 inventory reflects the taste of the Russell family in this period.
By 1920, one table was in the 'Drawing room', and its pair in the 'Chinese bedroom' (S. Houfe, Sir Albert Richardson, The Professor p. 54, fig. 2 and p. 55, fig. 6).
Although the cabinet maker cannot be identified with any certainty, these tables were perhaps supplied under the direction of the Professor's favoured architect, Henry Holland (d. 1806), who was remodelling Oakley between 1789 and 1792. and their original decoration could have been an early work by John Crace (d. 1819), who was paid the modest sum of £31 17s 2d for work at the house in 1791. The Craces, father and son, are known to have incorporated lacquered furniture in their repertoire and were working under Holland at Woburn Abbey for the same patron, and whilst analysis of the decoration of these tables has shown the present decoration to be the fourth scheme it is possible that it was in place by the time of the 1861 inventory when they were described as 'white Japanned' and may be a later work of the Crace dynasty which continued to flourish throughout the 19th century.

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