MID-18TH CENTURY

James Thursby Pelham's collection is celebrated today for the numerous pieces included in that seminal work of English furniture scholarship, the 1st edition of The Dictionary of English Furniture, published in 1924 by Percy Macquoid and Ralph Edwards. Examples were sourced by the authors not only from great historic collections such as Badminton House, the Royal Collection and Blenheim Palace, but also from the great collectors of that era. Macquoid and Edwards were fortunate to benefit from the counsel of another great furniture historian, R.W. Symonds. His fellow collectors, from and to whom pieces were often traded, are names synonymous with the principles of quality espoused and taught by Symonds: Thursby Pelham, Percival Griffiths, Lord Plender, J.S. Sykes, Herbert Rothbarth, Geoffrey Blackwell, Sir John Prestige and others. Several of these famed collections were written up in Country Life. Thursby Pelham's turn came in March-April 1923 in a series of four articles by Oliver Brackett, which detailed the glories of his collection (3 March, 17 March, 7 April and 21 April). His family's home in the 17th century was Upton Cresset Hall in Shropshire, and then Cound Hall, also in Shropshire, which had been built for Edward Cresset in 1704. Thursby Pelham developed a love of mid-18th century mahogany and early oak furniture, perhaps encouraged by the furniture and pictures he inherited.

A related tripod table with 'piecrust' top and richly-carved base that had once belonged to Percival Griffiths and then Geoffrey Blackwell, was sold by a descendant of Blackwell's, Christie's, London, 14 June 2001, lot 35 (£135,750). Another tripod table, but with plain circular top, also formerly in the collection of Geoffrey Blackwell, was sold by one of his descendants, Christie's, London, 24 November 2005, lot 10 (£102,000). The octagonal top is unusual and a tripod table with richly carved base and square top that may have been reduced in size, was sold by the late 2nd Viscount Camrose, Hackwood Park, Hampshire, Christie's house sale, 20-23 April 1998, lot 123. Later in the 18th century, Thomas Chippendale supplied hexagonal topped tripod tables to Sir Lawrence Dundas for 19 Arlington Street. These were veneered in 'Guadalupe' wood and supplied in 1764 (C. Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, London, 1978, vol. II, p. 257, fig. 470). Three such tables were commissioned for the lodging rooms at Harewood House, Yorkshire (ibid., p. 256, fig. 469).