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Lot Essay
This impressive and refined serving table and en suite pair of pedestals come from the Shafto family at Bavington Hall, Northumberland. Although no public inventories or full commissions are available for either Bavington Hall or the family’s other principal seats, Whitworth Hall and Beamish Park, there are examples of fine craftsmen working for the family. A serpentine polychrome-painted and marquetry commode attributed to Mayhew and Ince was sold by the family Christie’s, London, 29 November 1979 lot 65, while there are further examples of Wright and Elwick working at Whitworth (see C. Gilbert, 'Wright and Elwick of Wakefield, 1748-1824: A Study of Provincial Patronage,’ Furniture History, 1976, p. 38 and 48).
Despite the lack of archival material, an attribution based on the similarities of design, quality of timber and finely rendered carved details on this suite make an attribution tempting. There are distinct similarities between the present lots and those supplied by celebrated cabinet-maker Thomas Chippendale and his son for Ninian Home (d.1795), at Paxton House in Scotland (C. Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, London, 1978, vol. II, p. 193-94, figs. 351 and 353). There are specific details and nuances of the carving to the frieze of the serving table, with its rounded flutes with pinpricked hole at the base above a delicate guilloche-carved border, which can be clearly seen on the Paxton cellaret (op. cit., p. 79). However, the current lots have a slightly more simplified or distilled design than the Paxton example. For instance, the husk-swagged ram’s head is featured as a central tablet, but not repeated above the outside legs whereas there are swags that adjoin two pairs of outer legs on the Paxton table. Similarly, the plinths of the Paxton pedestals have a further border of reeded banding at the top of the plinths, whereas these examples are plain. Interestingly, another very similar pair of pedestals, in the same style as the Paxton suite, together with their contemporary urns recently sold at Bearnes, Hampton and Littlewood, Exeter, 24-25 April 2013, lot 813 (£350,000).
Despite the lack of archival material, an attribution based on the similarities of design, quality of timber and finely rendered carved details on this suite make an attribution tempting. There are distinct similarities between the present lots and those supplied by celebrated cabinet-maker Thomas Chippendale and his son for Ninian Home (d.1795), at Paxton House in Scotland (C. Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, London, 1978, vol. II, p. 193-94, figs. 351 and 353). There are specific details and nuances of the carving to the frieze of the serving table, with its rounded flutes with pinpricked hole at the base above a delicate guilloche-carved border, which can be clearly seen on the Paxton cellaret (op. cit., p. 79). However, the current lots have a slightly more simplified or distilled design than the Paxton example. For instance, the husk-swagged ram’s head is featured as a central tablet, but not repeated above the outside legs whereas there are swags that adjoin two pairs of outer legs on the Paxton table. Similarly, the plinths of the Paxton pedestals have a further border of reeded banding at the top of the plinths, whereas these examples are plain. Interestingly, another very similar pair of pedestals, in the same style as the Paxton suite, together with their contemporary urns recently sold at Bearnes, Hampton and Littlewood, Exeter, 24-25 April 2013, lot 813 (£350,000).