Apter-Fredericks

Important 18th & 19th Century Antique Furniture

Hepplewhite

A George III Hepplewhite Period Mahogany Cabinet of Exceptional Colour and Patination
A Pair of George III Large Bergere Chairs
A Fine Pair of George III Hepplewhite Period Mahogany Armchairs Attributed to John Cobb
A George III Satinwood "Harlequin" Pembroke Table in the Manner of Henry Kettle

GEORGE HEPPLEWHITE

Cabinet maker and designer at St. Giles Cripplegate, London. He developed a style which incorporated much of the Neo-Classicism of the period. In addition to the tables and regular pieces of household furniture, he also produced hanging lamps, tea trays and knife boxes. Hepplewhite died in 1788, and his widow Alice continued the company, publishing his designs and drawings as the Cabinet Maker's and Upholsterer's Guide some two years later.

George III Satinwood "Harlequin" Pembroke Table in the Manner of Henry Kettle

A George III Satinwood "Harlequin" Pembroke Table in the Manner of Henry Kettle

Height: 28" 71cm
Width: 20" 51cm
Depth: 29" 73.5cm

Width with flaps open: 37" 94.5cm

The rectangular satinwood top with yew-wood panels to the centre of each of the top and flaps above two drawers with dummy drawers to the reverse and supported on four square tapering legs terminating in brass box castors. The table is of excellent colour and quality.

Hepplewhite described pembroke tables as the most useful tables of their class and certainly this is borne out by the literature of the time. In Jane Austen's 'Emma' the heroine talks about her father taking his meals on one. Jane Austen also wrote to her sister when some new furniture was delivered to Steventon, that her mother kept all her papers in a pembroke table. Further sources mention ladies doing their embroidery at these tables.

Considering the popularity of the pembroke table it is not surprising that an ingenious variety termed 'harlequin pembroke table' appears towards the end of the century. The distinctive feature being a box-like structure, fitted with small drawers and pigeon holes which is concealed in the body of the table and by means of weights rises up above the top.

English, Circa 1785

Attribution
There are several tables by Kettle, many of which are labelled, that bear striking similarities to the one illustrated. Most notably the rectangular flaps with geometric inlay and the oval panel to the centre.
See Pictorial Dictionary of Marked London Furniture, 1700 - 1840, figs 543, 556.