The finely carved serving table, which is decorated with guilloche decoration to the frieze between an egg and dart and a gadrooned moulding, stands on four cabriole legs terminating in scrolled feet and with cabochon and foliate carving to the knees.

English, Circa 1750

The table is of the same general appearance as one by an unidentified hand published by the Society of Upholsterers in Genteel Household Furniture in the Present Taste (2nd ed., 1765). Tables of this form would have been used for the display of plate, knife cases, ect. In the dining room.

Sidetables are described as being comparable in overall design to pier tables but "their carving and decoration tended to be more substantial and masculine in character, befitting the general decoration of dining rooms" some frames were made of soft woods and gilded, but more often, from 1740 onwards, they were made of mahogany and polished." At a slightly later date they were incorporated in carefully considered decorative schemes for dining rooms such as the one at Kedleston by Robert Adams, with accompanying pedestals, urns, wine coolers and plate.

The table is comparable to a pair of side tables made for Langley Park (Christie's, 6th of July, lot 100 and Ralph Edwards, 1954, 2nd ed. Vol. III, p. 290, fig. 46). The acanthus carving at the knees and the scroll feet are very similar to those on a table at Hagley Hall, Worcestershire (see Ralph Edwards, op cit., p. 127, fig. 9).

Height: 34" 86.5cm

Width: 55" 140cm

Depth: 26" 66cm