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Lot Essay
This elegant side table expertly blends the flowering inlay and naturalistic curves of rococo with a newly fashionable classical vocabulary. The top is inlaid against a stunning basket weave background while an ‘ancient’ urn centers the frieze which gently curves upward for more advantageous presentation to the spectator.
The Altmayer table is referenced among a group of similar form and decoration, a subset of which features either the same basket weave or trellis pattern top originating from French design sources. While its design represents a fashion served by several top cabinet-makers, the group is most commonly attributed to one of the most highly acclaimed, John Cobb (d. 1778) of St. Martin’s Lane. His authorship is based on a comparison with the celebrated suite supplied for Paul Methuen at Corsham Court in 1772. Lucy Wood persuasively links a commode in the Lady Lever Art Gallery to the Corsham suite; both pieces are identified within a much larger opus comprising several furniture forms, but largely commodes and tables (L. Wood, Catalogue of Commodes, London, 1994, no. 7, pp. 97). The Lady Lever commode itself features this basket-weave inlay as well as displaying the arms of Baron Hyde of Hindon, later 1st Earl of Clarendon.
Serpentine ‘basket weave’ tables that compare closely in form and overall ornamentation and are definitively by the same maker. These include:
* A pair of tables in the Earl of Mansfield’s collection at Scone Palace, originally thought to have come from Kenwood (A. Coleridge, ‘Furniture from the Collection of the Earl of Mansfield, II’, The Connoisseur, May 1966, p;. 16, fig. 24 and C. Streeter, ‘Marquetry tables from Cobb’s workshop’, Furniture History, 1994, pp. 52-53, fig. 30A).
* A slightly smaller pair, advertised by Philip Duncan in June 1971 (The Connoisseur), one of which is illustrated in C. Musgrave, Adam and Hepplewhite Furniture, London, 1966, fig. 165.
To this we can add others nearly identical in form, although lacking the basket weave:
* A single table, with unornamented ground, whose photograph forms part of the R. W. Symonds Collection at the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, Wilmington, Delaware (Streeter, op. cit., pl. 30B).
* A table advertised by London dealers Gill and Reigate in 1936, said to have come from the collection of the Marquess of Anglesey and from Knole (Streeter, op. cit.; J. de Serre, ‘An inlaid satinwood table’, Country Life, 5 February 1927, p. 226).
* A pair of games tables sold by Christie’s, London, 14 December 1967, lot 143 (Streeter, pl. 28B).
It is notable that in discussing the Lady Lever commode, Lucy Wood cites sizeable payments from Baron Hyde to cabinet-makers Mayhew and Ince in 1766 and 1776 (ibid, p. 90). A consideration of Mayhew as maker of this group is tempting given their characteristic heavily shaded marquetry, and decorative elements such as the swags which loop outside of the confines of the crossbanded panels.
The Altmayer table is referenced among a group of similar form and decoration, a subset of which features either the same basket weave or trellis pattern top originating from French design sources. While its design represents a fashion served by several top cabinet-makers, the group is most commonly attributed to one of the most highly acclaimed, John Cobb (d. 1778) of St. Martin’s Lane. His authorship is based on a comparison with the celebrated suite supplied for Paul Methuen at Corsham Court in 1772. Lucy Wood persuasively links a commode in the Lady Lever Art Gallery to the Corsham suite; both pieces are identified within a much larger opus comprising several furniture forms, but largely commodes and tables (L. Wood, Catalogue of Commodes, London, 1994, no. 7, pp. 97). The Lady Lever commode itself features this basket-weave inlay as well as displaying the arms of Baron Hyde of Hindon, later 1st Earl of Clarendon.
Serpentine ‘basket weave’ tables that compare closely in form and overall ornamentation and are definitively by the same maker. These include:
* A pair of tables in the Earl of Mansfield’s collection at Scone Palace, originally thought to have come from Kenwood (A. Coleridge, ‘Furniture from the Collection of the Earl of Mansfield, II’, The Connoisseur, May 1966, p;. 16, fig. 24 and C. Streeter, ‘Marquetry tables from Cobb’s workshop’, Furniture History, 1994, pp. 52-53, fig. 30A).
* A slightly smaller pair, advertised by Philip Duncan in June 1971 (The Connoisseur), one of which is illustrated in C. Musgrave, Adam and Hepplewhite Furniture, London, 1966, fig. 165.
To this we can add others nearly identical in form, although lacking the basket weave:
* A single table, with unornamented ground, whose photograph forms part of the R. W. Symonds Collection at the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, Wilmington, Delaware (Streeter, op. cit., pl. 30B).
* A table advertised by London dealers Gill and Reigate in 1936, said to have come from the collection of the Marquess of Anglesey and from Knole (Streeter, op. cit.; J. de Serre, ‘An inlaid satinwood table’, Country Life, 5 February 1927, p. 226).
* A pair of games tables sold by Christie’s, London, 14 December 1967, lot 143 (Streeter, pl. 28B).
It is notable that in discussing the Lady Lever commode, Lucy Wood cites sizeable payments from Baron Hyde to cabinet-makers Mayhew and Ince in 1766 and 1776 (ibid, p. 90). A consideration of Mayhew as maker of this group is tempting given their characteristic heavily shaded marquetry, and decorative elements such as the swags which loop outside of the confines of the crossbanded panels.