Apter-Fredericks

Important 18th & 19th Century Antique Furniture

Memorable Pieces

An Exceptional Carved Mahogany Side Table by William Vile
An Outstanding & Highly Important Side Cabinet Attributed to S. Jamar
An Important George III Mahogany Library Table of Superb Colour & Quality
A Most Exceptional George III Mahogany Serpentine Fronted Chest on Chest
A Magnificent Carlton House Boulle-Inlaid Table Designed for George, The Prince of Wales, The Prince Regent,
A George III Parcel-Gilt and Painted Satinwood Pier Table
A Pair of George III Giltwood Armchairs By Thomas Chippendale
An Important Pair of Regency Period Rosewood Side Cabinets
A Pair of George III Blue John Cassolettes by Matthew Boulton
A George II Walnut Side Chair
A George III Sycamore, Tulipwood Rosewood and Marquetry Pembroke Table
An Outstanding Campana Vase in Blue John or Derbyshire Fluorspar
A Pair of Nineteenth Century Bronze and Ormolu Oil Lamps
A George III Chippendale Period Sidetable
A Rare Queen Anne Blue Japanned Bureau Cabinet
A George III Chippendale Period Carved Mahogany Commode
A Very Rare Pair of Cloisonné Cranes
Saved For The Nation
A George III Rolled Paperwork Box, decorated by Mary Earnshaw of Wakefield in 1795
A George III Carved Mahogany Urn Stand
A George II Period Carved Mahogany Bureau Cabinet Attributed to Giles Grendey
A George III Inlaid Occasional Table in the Manner of Pierre Langlois
A George II Period Pedestal
A Pair of George III Period Satinwood, Decorated and Parcel-Gilt Side Tables
The Spencer Perceval armchair from the Palace of Westminster
A Pierre Langlois Commode
A Pair of Robert Adam designed Giltwood Torcheres
A Rosewood and brass mounted side table by John McLean
A George III Mahogany Card Table in the Manner of Ince & Mayhew
A Jewel in the Crown of Queen Anne Furniture
An Expanding Circular Dining Table by Robert Jupe
A Fine Pair of Harewood And Inlaid Side Tables by William Gates
A Pair of Queen Anne Walnut Stools
A George II Carved Mahogany Side-table Attributed to Giles Grendey
A Very Rare Pair of Queen Anne Giltwood Border Glass Mirrors
A Regency Period Gilt, Ebonised and Decorated Wall Sconce
A Regency Period Hall Seat Attributed to George Bullock
A Pair of Georgian Dolphin 'Slab' Tables in the Manner of James Richards, after the Designs by William Kent
A George III Regency Period Convex Mirror by Thomas Fentham

The following images, taken from our archives, illustrate a small selection of pieces we have handled over the past 60 years and which have given us special pleasure and enjoyment. Either for the pieces themselves, their origins or the collections in which they have been placed.

A George III Sycamore, Tulipwood Rosewood and Marquetry Pembroke Table

Height: 29" 75cm
Width: 41" 105.5cm
Depth: 33" 84cm

This elegant pembroke-table has its oval medallion top charged with the coat-of-arms of the Masterman family of Riccal, Yorkshire, as has been recorded on an oval tea-salver bearing the date letter for 1782 (sold Christie's, London, 30 October 1991, lot 209). The table frieze's central medallion displays the family's Moor's head crest tied in a flowered ribbon -guilloche, while laurels wreath the top's beribboned escutcheon and entwine its flowered ribbon border. The antique border pattern relates to those in Designs for Various Ornaments, London, 1777 issued by M. A. Pergolesi, who was one of the decorative artists employed by the architect Robert Adam (d. 1792). The black colouring of the table's reed-moulded border reflects the influence of the 'Etruscan' style popularised by Works in Architecture, 1773-7 published by Robert Adam and his brother James. The use of an ebonised border is associated with the documented work of the Golden Square firm of John Mayhew and William Ince. The guilloche band can be related in particular to those featured on satinwood 'commode' bookcases inventoried in 1786 at Broadlands, Hampshire, and likely to have been supplied by the firm (H. Roberts, 'Furniture at Broadlands, Hampshire', Country Life, 29 January 1981, p. 289, fig. 7). The flowered ribbon guilloche of the frieze also appears on a commode at Syon House, Middlesex, a documented house at which the firm was employed. Lucy Wood suggests this commode may be by Mayhew (L. Wood, Catalogue of Commodes, London, 1994, p. 24, fig. 18 and p. 22, note 111). Other furniture closely related with the same frieze design includes a commode table illustrated in E. T. Joy, 'A marquetry commode of c. 1775: An outstanding production of the English cabinet-makers' craft' The Connoisseur, January 1965, pp. 36-38, and a side table with wreath-embellished top sold from the Arthur Leidesdorf collection, Sotheby & Co., London, 27 June 1974, lot 43.

The arms are those of Masterman impaling Mildred, for William Masterman of Leyton (1759-1845) and his wife Lydia (1756-1819), daughter of Daniel Mildred, a London merchant. Their son, John Masterman (1781-1862) became a Member of Parliament for the City of London from 1841 until 1857. He was also a director of the East India Company and head of the bank Masterman, Peters, Mildred and Masterman and Co.

English, 1780

The Masterman Family of Riccal, Yorkshire
George D. Widener Jr.


GEORGE D. WIDENER, JR. (1889-1971)
The pembroke table was owned by the Philadelphia born George D. Widener, Jr., the son of the financier George D. Widener, who perished on the Titanic in 1912, and Eleanor Elkins. As heir to the family fortune amassed by his grandfather, P.A.B. Widener, George was successfully devoted to horse racing and breeding, largely through the influence of his uncle, Joseph Widener. Over the course of his career, Widener and his wife won over 1,243 races and $9 million in purses, and horses bred by the Wideners won over $16 million. Widener was also a great philanthropist, serving as trustee of museums, art centers, hospitals, universities and scientific institutions in Philadelphia, New York and Washington. A significant benefactor to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, he bequeathed numerous magnificent objects from his collection including the spectacular carved mahogany commode supplied by Thomas Chippendale to Raynham Park, Norfolk (C. Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, London, 1978, vol .l, p.289).

Art and philanthropy were of great interest to the Widener family. George's uncle, Joseph E. Widener (d. 1943), devoted his energies to expanding the family's art collection that was begun by his father, P.A.B. Widener, and which he displayed for the public in the galleries of Lynnewood, the family's vast estate designed by Horace Trumbauer. In 1939, Joseph Widener offered his family's collection to the National Gallery of Art in memory of his father. The Widener gift was announced by President Franklin D. Roosevelt at the Gallery's opening ceremony in 1941 and installed shortly thereafter.