Height: 29.53 in (75 cm)
Width: 37.99 in (96.5 cm)
Depth: 18.90 in (48 cm)
A very closely related suite of furniture, almost certainly by the same maker, is recorded. The suite comprises a console table and a pair of card tables. The card tables are almost identical is form to ours – this other pair with tops with marquetry inlay depicting the arms of the family of Smyth of Ashton, Somerset. Also veneered in harewood, the frieze and leg construction and decoration is essentially identical.
The Smyth of Ashton tables were sold from the collection of The Rt. Hon. Lady Bruntisfield, Christie’s London, May 21, 1970 (lot 106 – 3200 guineas). Included and illustrated in Christies Review of the Year 1969/1970. They were subsequently offered by Partridge Fine Art Ltd. of New Bond Street in 2007.
One of the key features of these, and our tables, is the decoration of the frieze with the central paterae framed by the exhuberant heavily engraved and detailed inlaid flowing palm fronds. This allows close comparison to a commode supplied by John Cobb to Paul Methuen for Corsham Court in 1772 and also one in the collection of Her Majesty the Queen at Clarence House. Other closely related commodes with similar decoration exist.
Related Literature:
Partridge Fine Art Ltd., Recent Acquistions – Summer 2007, pp. 70-71
John Herbert, ed., Christie’s Review of the Year 1969/70, London, p. 356
L. Woods, Catalogue of Commodes, The Lady Lever Art Gallery, 1994, pp.90-94, figs. 75-77, 82, 83, 85
Christopher Hussey, Clarence House, p.115, fig. 45
David Nickerson, English Furniture, 1963
C. Streeter, Furniture History Society Journal, ‘Marquetry tables from Cobb’s workshop’, 1974