George II period table, after designs by Henry Flitcroft (1697-1769), a major architect of the Neo-Palladian movement in England, C. 1740

Attributed to Matthias Lock

Exhibited by Steinitz Gallery

Material Moulded, carved and oil-gilded pine wood ; Portor marble top.

Dimensions 81 × 190 × 81.5 cm

Place of Creation England

Status Vetted

About the Work

This console table in moulded, carved and oil-gilt pine wood, with imposing proportions and a highly architectural design, was executed circa 1740 by renowned London-based furniture maker, sculptor, and draughtsman Matthias Lock (circa 1710-1765), after designs by the architect Henry Flitcroft (1697-1769), a key figure of Neo-Palladianism in England during the first half of the eighteenth century. Flitcroft was recognised for his talents as a designer by Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington, known as the “architect Earl” and the “Apollo of the Arts”, who took him into his service and oversaw his artistic training.

Rectangular in shape, the console features a robust apron with moulded borders, adorned with a broad frieze of Vitruvian scrolls set against finely stippled grounds, surmounted by a moulded cornice with a pronounced overhang, carved in a doucine along its circumference, with a short frieze of acanthus leaves. The whole is articulated on the façade by three strong projections enriched with quatrefoils and acanthus foliage. The central one, wider, is distinguished by a circular cartouche motif with scrolls in the form of an inverted pelta enclosing an acanthus blossom. An extraordinary naturalistic elephant’s head, carved in the round, accentuates this central section, flanked by two powerful compositions of rich floral motif drapery with fringed borders, containing in each drape a luxuriant arrangement of fruits and foliage, all held in place by two opulent knots affixed to the front legs of the console.

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Provenance

Collection of Edward George Villiers Stanley (1865-1948), 17th Earl of Derby, and of his wife, Alice Maud Olivia Montagu (1862-1957), Countess of Derby, daughter of the 7th Duke of Manchester, and Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Alexandra of Denmark (1844-1925), consort of King Edouard VII of England (1841-1910) from 1901 to 1910, in their residence at Coworth Park, Sunningdale, near Ascot, in the Royal County of Berkshire, close to Windsor Castle, southwest of London; sold in the posthumous sale of the Countess of Derby: Catalogue of the contents of Coworth Park, Sunningdale, Berks., sold by order of the beneficiaries of the late Alice, Countess of Derby, including old pictures and engravings, English and French 18th century furniture, decorative China en dinner services, a fine Savonnerie carpet, eastern rugs and carpets, and the household furnishings and appointments, Christie, Manson & Woods, in London, on 14 and 15 October 1957, lot n° 127.

Literature

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE:

• Peter Ward-Jackson, English furniture designs of the eighteenth century, London, 1958, p. 39, fig. 48.
• Christopher Gilbert, Furniture at Temple Newsam House and Lotherton Hall, 2 vols., 1978, vol. II, p. 353-356, cat. n° 446.
• The Treasure houses of Britain: five hundred years of private patronage and art collecting, exhibition catalogue, Washington, 1985, p. 234, cat. n° 155 (entry by Gervase Jackson-Stops)
• Geoffrey Beard and Judith Goodison, English Furniture 1500-1840, London, 1987,
p. 100, fig. 3.
• Peter Thornton, “Soane's Kent Tables”, Furniture History, vol. XXIX, 1993, p. 59-65.
• Lanto Synge, Mallett's Great English Furniture, Londres, 1991, p. 91, fig. 98.