ATTRIBUTED TO WILLIAM BRADSHAW, CIRCA 1755

This George II mahogany side table, circa 1750-55, is attributed to William Bradshaw (d. 1775), renowned London-based cabinet-maker, with workshops and warerooms in Frith Street, Greek Street and Hanover Square, who had 'a rare skill in joinery and furniture making' regularly supplying furniture, upholstery and tapestry from 1728-62 to aristocratic circles for their London townhouses and country seats (Geoffrey Beard, 'William Bradshaw: Furniture Maker and Tapestry Weaver', Metropolitan Museum Journal, Volume 37, New York, 2002, pp. 167-169). This provenance is based on almost identical carving depicting foliage encircled by a crown on the cabriole legs of a set of four armchairs by Bradshaw in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; these chairs were originally at Chesterfield House, London, the 4th Earl of Chesterfield's important Rococo-style home (ibid., p. 169, fig. 1). This motif is also very similar to that on a mahogany and parcel-gilt side table attributed to Bradshaw, sold Christie's 23 November 2006, lot 60 for £90,000 (exc. prem.). Related carving but with an inverted crown features on two suites of seat furniture at Holkham Hall, Norfolk, commissioned by Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester and possibly supplied by Bradshaw or alternatively by Paul Saunders (d. 1771) and George Smith Bradshaw (d. 1812) (Ralph Edwards, The Dictionary of English Furniture, volume I, London, 1954, p. 275, fig. 155). Although Bradshaw's recorded work for Thomas Coke is predominantly during the 1740s, he received £429 14 shillings for furniture at Holkham in 1742, and between 1740-47 supplied eighteen chairs with leather seats to the library and dining room of 'Mr. Coke's apartment in the London House' (Thanet House), he is known to have completed a series of unfinished tapestries for Holkham as late as 1773 (Geoffrey Beard and Christopher Gilbert, Ed., Dictionary of English Furniture Makers 1660-1840, Leeds, 1986, p. 100). Saunders and George Smith Bradshaw are also documented at Holkham as having supplied Lord Leicester with several suites of mahogany chairs between 1756-58 (Anthony Coleridge, 'Some Mid-Georgian Cabinet-Makers at Holkham', Apollo, London, February 1964, pp. 122-128). Interestingly, Saunders and George Smith Bradshaw took over William Bradshaw's premises at 59 Greek Street in 1759 and it is conceivable that the firm copied Bradshaw's earlier designs and introduced them to Holkham. Another pair of chairs with a related 'Holkham' motif sold Bonhams London, 19 October 2011, lot 34. These are believed to be part of The Mornington suite, the property of the 1st Earl of Mornington of Dangan in County Meath, Ireland, and were later at The Abbey, County Tipperary. A related side table to the present example sold Sotheby's New York, 16 October 2009, lot 106. A comparable pair of side tables, attributed to William Vile and John Cobb, supplied to Sir George Lyttelton, 5th Baronet, for Hagley Hall Worcestershire, sold Christie's London, 14 June 2001, lot 50, for £465,750 (inc. prem.).