The cross and featherbanded ratcheted and hinged top enclosing a writing-surface, the sides conformingly featherbanded with two side drawers, on a turned tapering shaft and tripod base with pointed pad feet, restorations and replacements to the veneers, the veneers on the table top apparently re-used, one cabriole leg and the foot pads replaced, one escutcheon replaced
29 in. (74 cm.) high; 14³⁄₄ in. (37.5 cm.) wide; 18³⁄₄ in. (47.5 cm.) deep

Samuel Courtauld, The Etruscan Room, Home House, 20 Portman Sq. London, thence by descent to
Mrs M. Butler,
Thence by descent to the present owner.

Illustrated in 'Home House', Country Life, Oct. 22nd 1932.
K. Serres (ed.), The Courtauld Collection, A Vision for Impressionism, Paris, 2019, p. 83, illustrated.

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Lot Essay

This metamorphic 'harlequin' reading and writing-table is designed in the 'Modern' fashion of the 1730's and with its tripod base with pad feet and ratcheted adjustable top, it closely resembles a design on the trade-sheet issued in the 1730's and inscribed 'Potter London'. Now held at the Victoria and Albert Museum (no.E2320-1889), this trade sheet is almost certainly that of the cabinet-maker Thomas Potter (d.1782), recorded as working in High Holborn in 1737 and thought to have had connections to John Channon, the prominent St Martin's Lane 'Cabinet-Maker and Frame-Maker', who supplied expensive brass-enriched furniture for Powderham Castle, Devon in 1740. Potter, working in partnership with John Kelsey, supplied furniture to Sir Richard Colt Hoare for Barn Elms House in 1738 suggesting that they too attracted a wealthy clientele.
A related table attributed to Potter was sold anonymously Christie's, London, 4 July 2002, lot 24 (£22,705 including premium) and was recently acquired by Temple Newsam Museum, Leeds.

SAMUEL COURTAULD IV
This reading table was in the collection of the industrialist Samuel Courtauld IV (d.1947) patron of the arts and founder of the Courtauld Institute, who, from 1927-32, held the lease on Home House, 20 Portman Square, London, the property which had been built for Elizabeth, Dowager Countess of Home with magnificent interiors designed by Robert Adam. Home House was described in the 18th century by Matthew Boulton as 'a masterly example of Robert Adam's work amazing in the complexity of its detail conducted with a rare skill' (C. Hussey and A. Oswald, Home House No. 20 Portman Square, London, 1934, p.18). Courtauld’s niece recalled, ‘when Samuel Courtauld hung his Impressionist pictures in his Adam house many of his friends and relations were genuinely shocked’, (K. Serres (ed.), The Courtauld Collection, A Vision for Impressionism, Paris, 2019, p. 8).However, Samuel Courtauld also significantly restored the decoration, replacing some essential features of the 18th Century setting with insight and taste. The present table was placed in the Etruscan room of Home house and was photographed in situ by Country Life in October 1932.