These superb painted pedestals are very closely related in design to a pair  now in the Yellow Drawing Room at Harewood House - Chippendale's greatest commission. Similar to designs for pedestals by the architect Robert Adam (d. 1792), Chippendale’s later work, in its simplicity and elegance, clearly demonstrates the influence of Adam’s neo-classical style. Although no surviving source for this specific pedestal is known, the distinctive concentric carving with the centred rosette was used as a decorative element in the wall panelling of the Long Gallery at the Earl of Northumberland’s Syon House. Designs for the interiors of Syon were published by Adam on his return from Rome in 1761. 

A virtually identical pair of pedestals in mahogany is illustrated in the entrance hall of Home House, No. 20 Portman Square. In this instance, again it was Robert Adam who was appointed by Elizabeth, Countess of Home in 1755 to complete the neo-classical interiors at Home House, as successor to James Wyatt. Home House was occupied by philanthropist Samuel Courtauld from 1932, and it is possible that he acquired the pedestals during his tenure. A pair is recorded in the collection of the Earl of Derby in the early 20th century. A further pair is believed to have been supplied to William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland (d. 1809) for Burlington House.

The concentric fluting also features on an oval wine-cooler almost certainly made for Sir Watkins Williams-Wynn, Bt. (d. 1789) and which relates closely to Adam drawings held at the Sir John Soane Museum..



 

Maurice Tomlin, Catalogue of Adam Period Furniture, Victoria & Albert Museum, 1982, pp. 4 - 5
John Swarbick, Robert Adam & his brothers; their lives, work and influence, London, 1915, p. 71
Dr. M. Whinney, Home House, No. 20 Portman Square, London, 1969, p.85.
Francis Lenygon, Furniture in England from 1660 to 1760, 1914, p. 188, fig, 283
The Adam Drawings, Sir John Soane Museum, vol. 25, no. 118