CIRCA 1785

While the design of this table appears to be unique, certain design fea­tures can be found on furniture supplied by the Berkeley Square part­nership of William Ince and John Mayhew. Carved details such as the tapering fluted supports, beading, long leaves and spiral-fluted and shaped feet feature on a commode which was almost certainly supplied by the firm to the 9th Earl of Winchilsea for Burley-on-the-Hill (illustrat­ed in R. Edwards, ed., The Dictionary of English Furniture, rev. edn., London, 1954, vol. II, fig. 56), sold Christie's London, 6 July 1989, lot 147. Substantial payments to the firm amounting to over £2,600 are recorded from 1772 to 1776 (Leicester Record Office). Sunflower pater­ae with beaded surrounds and fluted tapering legs appear on furniture supplied for the 4th Duke of Marlborough in circa 1775 (see H. Roberts, 'Nicely Fitted Up': Furniture for the 4th Duke of Marlborough, Furniture History, 1994, p.138, fig. 28).
The table's elegant legs, with herm-tapered columns capped by spiraled flutes, correspond to a pattern in the French/antique fashion pub­lished in Thomas Sheraton's, The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Drawing Book, 1793 (pt. 111, pl. 35).