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Lot Essay
This magnificent table, with its large-scale architectural form and classical themes, shows the strong influence of the Palladian style promoted by Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington and his protégé the architect William Kent on both architecture and furniture in England in the 1730s and 1740s. It was a style also promoted by Kent's circle and the leading furniture designers of the age such as John Vardy, Matthias Lock, Henry Flitcroft, Benjamin Goodison and James Moore. The marble slab is supported on a lip of egg-and-dart above boldly-carved sphinxes – symbolising vigilance and wisdom – between which Jupiter’s eagle – emblematic of power and victory – is displayed grasping garlands of oak leaves in its beak. The sphinx motif is commonly associated with Kent: the table that he designed and supplied to Horace Walpole for the saloon at Houghton Hall, Norfolk is carved with two sphinxes (M. Jourdain, The Work of William Kent, London, 1948, p. 176, fig. 142). Kent is also associated with the eagle and his tailpiece illustration for Alexander Pope’s Odyssey of 1725, depicting ‘Zeus’s warning’, featured a pair of eagles on a table incorporating oak leaf garlands (S. Weber, ed., William Kent: Designing Georgian Britain, London, 2013, p. 422, fig. 16.12.).
This table is closely related to a table supplied to George Lee, 2nd Earl of Litchfield for Ditchley in Oxfordshire, by either William Kent or Henry Flitcroft, circa 1730 (G. Beard and J. Goodison, English Furniture 1500–1840, 1987, p. 90, fig. 1; R. Edwards and P. Macquoid, The Dictionary of English Furniture, London, 1954, rev. ed., vol. III, p. 284, fig. 31). The table includes two outward-facing sphinxes supporting the marble top, with oak leaf swags and an architectural plinth. Further examples of documented period tables featuring sphinxes include a pair of tables whose sphinxes are adorned with Egyptian headdresses, supplied by John Phillips to the Duke of Beaufort for Badminton House, Gloucestershire in 1731 (A. Bowett, Early Georgian Furniture 1715-1740, Woodbridge, 2009, p. 231, pl. 5:60).
This table is closely related to a table supplied to George Lee, 2nd Earl of Litchfield for Ditchley in Oxfordshire, by either William Kent or Henry Flitcroft, circa 1730 (G. Beard and J. Goodison, English Furniture 1500–1840, 1987, p. 90, fig. 1; R. Edwards and P. Macquoid, The Dictionary of English Furniture, London, 1954, rev. ed., vol. III, p. 284, fig. 31). The table includes two outward-facing sphinxes supporting the marble top, with oak leaf swags and an architectural plinth. Further examples of documented period tables featuring sphinxes include a pair of tables whose sphinxes are adorned with Egyptian headdresses, supplied by John Phillips to the Duke of Beaufort for Badminton House, Gloucestershire in 1731 (A. Bowett, Early Georgian Furniture 1715-1740, Woodbridge, 2009, p. 231, pl. 5:60).