EARLY 19TH CENTURY, POSSIBLY BY MARSH & TATHAM

This unusual pattern of combined library table and bookcase is one of a small known group that includes an example illustrated in M. Jourdain, Regency Furniture 1795-1830, London, 1965, p. 76, fig. 173, another closely related table bearing the trade label of the Regency retailer Daniell of 46 Wigmore Street sold Christie’s, South Kensington, 18 April 1990, lot 436 (£33,000 incl' premium) (C. Gilbert, Pictorial Dictionary of Marked London Furniture 1700-1840, Leeds, 1996, p. 174, fig. 276), and another sold Christie's, London, 21 November 2018, lot 80 (£187,500 incl' premium). The design is possibly derived from Sheraton’s pattern for a Library Table published between 1804-08 in his Cabinet-Maker, Upholsterer and General Artist’s Encyclopaedia, pl. 37 (J. Harris, Regency Furniture Designs 1803-1826, London, 1961, no. 25) while a further comparable design for a 'Circular Movable Bookcase' was published in Ackermann's Repository of Arts between 1809-1829.

This library table featuring distinctive and idiosyncratic carving of the lion’s head masks was possibly made by Marsh & Tatham, one of the pre-eminent cabinet-making firms in the Regency period and amongst the group of craftsmen recommended or engaged by the Prince of Wales' architect Henry Holland on commissions at Woburn Abbey and Southill Park, Bedfordshire, and at Carlton House in London (ed. G. Beard, C. Gilbert, The Dictionary of English Furniture Makers 1660-1840, Leeds, 1986, pp. 623-624). Other related tables with lion mask mounts attributed to the firm and related to the present table include a table from Harewood House, sold 'The Exceptional Sale', Christie's, London, 4 July 2019, lot 129 (£75,000 incl' premium); a pair of tables, also from Harewood, and now in the Royal Pavilion, Brighton, another from the collection of Lt. Col. S.G. Goldschmidt, Kerfield House, Ollerton, Cheshire (M. Harris & Sons, A Catalogue and Index of Old Furniture and Works of Decorative Art, London, c. 1930, Part III, p. 406, no. F 20465), and an example from the Drawing Room, Scotney Castle, Kent (C. Hussey, English Country Houses Late Georgian 1800-1840, London, 1955, p. 228, fig. 439), sold Christie’s, London, 15 November 2017, lot 226 (£100,000 incl' premium).

Newton Park, near Bath, was built for Joseph Langton by the architect Stiff Leadbetter in the early 1760s and passed to his daughter Bridget (d.1793) after her marriage in 1783 to William Gore. In the late 18th century, the grounds at Newton, were landscaped by 'Capability' Brown and were the subject of a 'Red Book' by the fashionable landscape gardner, Sir Humprehy Repton. An advantageous marriage in the 19th century by William Henry Powell Gore Langton (1824-73) to Anna, daughter of Richard Temple-Grenville, 2nd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, eventually saw their eldest son William succeeding as 4th Earl Temple of Stowe in 1889. It's not known if the library table was an inherited piece or an acquisition, Newton Park appears to have been largely unaltered in the 19th century but the table may have been commissioned after 1813 when the 2nd Earl Temple succeeded his father, or possibly after his marriage in 1819. Newton Park was sold in 1940 after the dearth of the 5th Earl and the table was not included in the sale of contents conducted by Sotheby & Co. 9 May 1941, so it may well have been acquired privately by Leonard Knight.