A Rare Chippendale Period Carved Giltwood Console Table

The replaced calcatta viola marble top above a fluted frieze with an egg and dart moulding above  and a ribbon and flower moulding below, standing on cabriole legs which are acanthus carved to the knee and terminate in lion paw feet.

The strong architectural form of this table led Herbert Cescinsky, the leading early 20th Century furniture historian, to term this type of furniture architects' furniture. These tables often played a key element in the decorative scheme such as the console tables by Robert Adam for Osterley Park, Middlesex. It should be noted that the table is rare in having six legs and was clearly commissioned as the central piece in a lavish interior by a wealthy patron.

The design of this table is transitional between the free flowing Rococo in the vigorous acanthus carving to the legs and their cabriole form and the more severe Neoclassicism of the later 18th Century seen in the frieze. The table's design is closely related to a drawing executed by the most famous of cabinet-makers, Thomas Chippendale in 1760.

Literature:

English Furniture of the 18th Century, H. Cescinsky Volume II, pg. 107

The Age of Mahogany, P. Macquoid

Furniture in England 1660-1760, F. Lenygon, pg. 134

The More Significant Georgian Furniture, F. Hinckley, pg. 129

Osterley Park, Middlesex, E. Harris

English Furniture Designs of the Eighteenth Century, P. Ward-Jackson