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Lot Essay
Designed in the neoclassical style of Robert Adam (d. 1792) with its paired fluted columnar legs and curved stretchers enriched with ribbon guilloche, this table belongs to a distinctive group which includes the large pier table supplied for the 'Glass Drawing Room' at Northumberland House, London, designed by Adam in 1773 (D. Owsley and W. Rieder, The Glass Drawing Room from Northumberland House, London, 1974, pl. 20). It further includes the celebrated pair of tables also designed by Adam and made by Sefferin Alken for the 6th Earl of Coventry in 1768 for the Great Room of Coventry House, Piccadilly at a cost of £212.6.11d, while another closely related pair with verde antico marble tops was sold from The Barbara Piasecka Johnson Collection, Christie's, New York, 9 October 1993, lot 193.
The striking stones used to create the top of this table would appear to be south Italian lava specimen and related mosaic tops can be found at Paxton House in Scotland. Patrick Home of Wedderburn (1728-1808), who had embarked on a Grand Tour to Italy in 1750-51 and again in 1771-79, returned to Scotland with vast collections of Italian pictures, vases, chimneypieces and marble tops, including several incorporating lava specimen. The Paxton lava tops are mentioned in 1814 invoices addressed to his nephew - and subsequent heir - George Paxton, who had commissioned William Trotter to make supports for the mosaic slabs (see F. Bamford, Dictionary of Edinburgh Wrighs and Furniture Makers, Leeds, 1983, pl. 54A and 56).
While best known for his vast collection of vases, Sir William Hamilton (1730 - 1803) was also interested in volcanoes and, sparked by the 1765 eruption of Mount Vesuvius, there were numerous specimen from Vesuvius amongst the collections of rocks and lava despatched by him to the British Museum in 1767 and again in 1770. When Hamilton, then British Ambassador to the court in Naples, recruited the Sicilian Count Joseph Giveni of Catania to prepare studies of Mount Etna in 1781 he was presented with a tray of polished tablets of Sicilian volcanic rocks and lavas, several of them closely related to the specimen found on this top. That small presentation panel recently re-appeared when it was sold from the C. Ruxton and Audrey B. Love Collection at Christie's, New York, 20 October 2004, lot 516. Interestingly the 8 June 1809 sale of 'The Property of Sir William Hamilton, K.B. and the Rt. Hon. Lord Viscount Nelson' at Christie's, London, included as lot 103 a larger slab of volcanic specimen described as 'A fine slab, composed of various specimens of lava, inlaid, on a stand', and while the 1809 description is frustratingly vague it is not unreasonable to speculate that the latter slab might have been similar to the present top, the history of which remains unknown.
The striking stones used to create the top of this table would appear to be south Italian lava specimen and related mosaic tops can be found at Paxton House in Scotland. Patrick Home of Wedderburn (1728-1808), who had embarked on a Grand Tour to Italy in 1750-51 and again in 1771-79, returned to Scotland with vast collections of Italian pictures, vases, chimneypieces and marble tops, including several incorporating lava specimen. The Paxton lava tops are mentioned in 1814 invoices addressed to his nephew - and subsequent heir - George Paxton, who had commissioned William Trotter to make supports for the mosaic slabs (see F. Bamford, Dictionary of Edinburgh Wrighs and Furniture Makers, Leeds, 1983, pl. 54A and 56).
While best known for his vast collection of vases, Sir William Hamilton (1730 - 1803) was also interested in volcanoes and, sparked by the 1765 eruption of Mount Vesuvius, there were numerous specimen from Vesuvius amongst the collections of rocks and lava despatched by him to the British Museum in 1767 and again in 1770. When Hamilton, then British Ambassador to the court in Naples, recruited the Sicilian Count Joseph Giveni of Catania to prepare studies of Mount Etna in 1781 he was presented with a tray of polished tablets of Sicilian volcanic rocks and lavas, several of them closely related to the specimen found on this top. That small presentation panel recently re-appeared when it was sold from the C. Ruxton and Audrey B. Love Collection at Christie's, New York, 20 October 2004, lot 516. Interestingly the 8 June 1809 sale of 'The Property of Sir William Hamilton, K.B. and the Rt. Hon. Lord Viscount Nelson' at Christie's, London, included as lot 103 a larger slab of volcanic specimen described as 'A fine slab, composed of various specimens of lava, inlaid, on a stand', and while the 1809 description is frustratingly vague it is not unreasonable to speculate that the latter slab might have been similar to the present top, the history of which remains unknown.