The present table, with its elegant shaped front, designed to represent Cupid’s bow, is an unusual development of the side table as typically found in giltwood examples by, or in the manner of, Robert Adam. Adam was a pioneer of the English neoclassical movement, whose Works in Architecture (1773) helped popularize the Roman taste for harmonizing the architecture of a room and its furniture through the introduction of “tablets” and “medallions.” The central tablet of the frieze depicts Cupid and Psyche bringing a sacrificial basket of food to an altar, which is unveiled by one of their winged companions. It is inspired by the Egyptian romance, The Metamorphoses or Golden Ass written by the Isis priest Apuleius, which records the birth of Hedone (“Pleasure”) upon the marriage of Cupid and Psyche. The prototype for this bas-relief is likely to have derived from an engraving of the celebrated Sardonyx cameo from The Marlborough Collection of Gems, now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (figure 1), depicting the marriage procession of Cupid and Psyche acted out by putti. Prior to the Marlborough collection, the gem belonged to other notable owners including Peter Paul Rubens and the Duke of Arundel. Josiah Wedgwood and John Flaxman reproduced the gem in 1778 in the form of a jasper tablet, making collectors and designers alike aware of this composition.

The table also has very distinctive features within its carved ornament connected with this romantic theme. For instance, the frieze is applied with repeating gilded feather motifs, which are probably intended to evoke the wing feathers of cupid and are an interesting variant on the more usual acanthine patterns found on tables in the manner of Adam. Another underlying allusion of the feathers may be to the sun-god Apollo, as poetry deity and leader of the Mt. Parnassus Muses of Artistic Inspiration. Similar feathered plumes feature on the ceiling of an Apollonian temple illustrated in Robert Wood’s, Ruins of the Temple of the Sun at Palmyra, 1753 (figure 2).

The central tablet and table frieze are framed by an Etruscan/Grecian pearl-string, which recalls the dress of the water-born Venus. Pearls also tie palm leaves to the acanthus-wreathed capitals of the tapered legs. Palms are typically used to represent a victory, and in this instance signify the Triumph of Love. The legs are further wreathed by bands of sunflower petals, another allusion to the sun-god Apollo, and raised on stepped and antique-fluted plinths. The frieze’s projecting corner tablets, which are sunk with lozenge and acanthus-flowered compartments, relate to the ceiling ornament of a temple at Palmyra (figure 3).

Sideboards with tapered legs, usually six or eight in number, are a signature element of Adamesque design, intended for a silver plate garniture and the presentation of food and wine. The exceptionally large scale and opulent design of the present table, including the very unusual hue of bluish-green to the base, reflect its importance in providing a focal point for a banqueting or dining room. Here it served like a temple altar, with its paired legs providing a “triumphal-arch” space for a wine-bottle cistern. The feet are particularly noteworthy, being of spaded circular form and incised with fluting.

The table stood in Linton Park, a mansion built by Robert Mann in the 18th century on the hillside of the eponymous village in Kent. The estate was originally called Capells Court after its initial proprietors who sold it in the late 16th century to the Mayney family, wealthy broadcloth merchants. It was from the Mayney’s that Robert Mann acquired the estate and subsequently remodeled it (figure 4). The Mann family maintained Linton Park until 1935, and in 1938 the estate and its contents were purchased and restored to its original state by Ronald Olaf Hambro, merchant banker and Director of the London Assurance Company. After Hambro, the table eventually passed to a distinguished American private collection, where it can be seen in situ in figure 5.

English. Circa 1755. The present mirror provides a rare and exciting example of furniture which can be directly related to the renowned designer and carver Thomas Johnson (1714 - c.1778). The mirror is almost identical to a drawing by Johnson which appeared as part of plate 2 in his celebrated and highly influential Collection of Designs. Given the quality of his designs, it is somewhat surprising that, as of yet, no documented pieces firmly attributable to Johnson himself have come to light. Johnson's work represents the most adventurous expression of the Rococo taste by an English designer, conceived as the style was reaching its apogee in England. The present piece belongs to a small and elite group of English rococo mirrors which excel in their interpretation of the style.

Venice. Signed with Initials T e H R and Dated 1711. The present chairs are bold and over-scale examples of the exuberantly carved and vividly coloured chairs being created in the early part of the eighteenth century to furnish the enchantingly sensuous palazzos of Venice, then "an enchanted city of carnivals, masques, amusement and pretence." The presence to the reverse of the chairs of a date and signature is extremely rare on an early eighteenth century piece of Italian furniture and dates them precisely to 1711. The chairs are an example of the modified form in which the high-backed chair of the renaissance persisted into the eighteenth century, ranged with cabinets and tables against the walls of the grand formal rooms of Italian palazzos. The unusual survival of a design for a chair in the Fondazione Fantoni, Rovetta, illustrates the elaborate form that such chairs attained in Italy.

English. Circa 1770. Of giltwood. The curved oval backs with carved frame raised on foliate carved supports above a shaped seat rail, with serpentine frame, the curving arm rests with scrolling handles on carved uprights, the whole raised on four cabriole legs.

Probably New York. Circa 1810. Of carved and painted giltwood. The upholstered back with scrolling toprail terminating in uprights in the form of seated winged lions, above upholstered armrests opening to a plain apartment, the upholsted seat above a shaped border terminating in a Greek key scroll, the whole raised on four zoomorphic legs, the pair to the front below scrolling eagle wings, the back filled with an upholstered panel.

Copenhagen. Circa 1770. Of carved deal retaining their original gilding and bevelled mirror plates. Each rectangular frame with ribbon and reed carved decoration with inner twist mouldings enclosing shaped bevelled divided mirror plates. The elaborately carved crest surmounted by a stylised vase resting on a stepped podium from which issue heavy floral swags tied by a ribbon. The apron with floral festoons fixed to the sides with plain turned bosses.

English. Circa 1810. One of the earliest and best-known depictions of a convex mirror occurs in the Arnolfini Wedding Portrait by Jan Van Eyck’s 1434 (National Gallery, London). To make a convex plate at this early date probably involved use of the blown method, an extremely skilled and costly process that made such pieces the preserve of the very wealthy. It was not until the latter part of the eighteenth century that such mirror plates could be made in a mold. The present pair of mirrors epitomizes Regency decoration, particularly in the eagles that surmount each. The eagle was a symbol of might and triumph, and “is often represented on Regency convex mirror frames grasping a chain in its mouth. The eagle sits above a crossed bough of sprigs of oak leaves and acorns, which are repeated among other foliate decoration in the apron. The oak, adopted as the national tree of England, is a symbol of virtue, strength and endurance.

Of giltwood with painted opaline glass panels. Of geometric form, the giltwood frame comprising gilt beaded and guilloche mouldings and fitted with panels of opaline glass painted with scrolling foliate decorations, the whole terminating in an acanthine finial.

English. Circa 1820. Of giltwood. The whole surmounted by a carved giltwood crane surrounded by foliage and above a carved pineapple, the rectangular frame carved as faux bamboo.

Of carved giltwood. Each with rock work drip pan raised on a shaped shaft lapped by foliate decoration and resting on a triform base carved with flowers and scrolled feet.

Venetian. Circa 1760. Of giltwood. Of bombé form. The shaped agata amestina veneered top above a single shallow drawer edged with floral carving and a deep shaped panelled drawer, the angles carved to the shoulder with berries and leaves, the whole raised on four cabriole legs, each carved to the knee with foliate decoration and terminating in a carved foot.

English. Circa 1795. The design of the present pair of bookcases reveals the understated influence of French neoclassicism in England during the late 18th century. This manner of design is most strongly associated with the designer and architect Henry Holland (1745-1806), among whose most celebrated works were Carlton House for the Prince Regent, later George IV, and Southill Park in Bedfordshire. The bookcases can be associated with Holland through comparison with the furniture of Southill, strongly attributed to the architect. The curious shaped feet to the rear of the bookcases are a distinctive feature, a variation of which is found on a pair of rosewood commodes of French form, which stand in Mrs. Whitbread’s room at Southill. The metalwork of the bookcases is also strongly in the Holland style. The crossed grills to the side of the bookcases are repeated to the sides of a raised stand on a rosewood pier table in the drawing room at Southill.

English. Last Quarter Of The Eighteenth Century. The present pair of candelabra, although almost certainly English, due to their lightness of modeling, gilding technique, and typically English vase-shaped brass candleholders, are based on a French prototype that was introduced in the late 18th century. It is likely that the pair, which are most unusually carved in fine detail from wood, were produced as special commissions, or as maquettes for the plaster sculpture industry that flourished in Britain from the mid-18th through the mid-19th century. The plaster sculpture movement never spread to the Continent, although a very influential set of French statuettes were first produced in plaster for a party at the home of Madame du Berry in 1771. These four figures of Abundance held cornucopias from which issued candlelight.

The present mirrors are one of the most complex and dynamic expressions of the early rococo style in England. The mirrors employ the language of the rococo in the form of rocaille, floral and shell-like forms, and c-scrolls, yet retain a baroque sense of massivity and balance that eschews any hint of rococo frivolity. The mirrors formed, at one time, part of the iconic collection of the Duke of Northumberland. According to Graham Child, they have a history of being present in three of the Ducal residences. “They were formerly at a house called Stanwick Park... The pair is also illustrated in the Duke of Northumberland's archives as being in the collection at Alnwick Castle, Northumberland, and were recently removed from Syon House, Middlesex.” Sir Hugh Smithson of Yorkshire, who adopted the name Percy upon his marriage to Elizabeth Percy in 1740, inherited the title of Earl of Northumberland from his father-in-law, Algernon Seymour, in 1750.

English. Second Quarter Of The Nineteenth Century. The existence of convex mirrors dates back to the second quarter of the 15th century.

However, the more widespread introduction of these mirrors in interior decoration did not occur until the latter part of the 18th century, when a new production method allowed convex mirror plates to be made in a mold. This more efficient, less costly approach promoted a great fashion for this type of mirror in England during the first decades of the 19th century.

In the 18th and early 19th centuries mirrors were regarded as lighting devices as well as decorative fixtures, which would reflect back the interior of the room they were situated in; convex mirrors lent themselves particularly well to both these functions.

While the present mirrors derive from this tradition, they differ substantially in that they consist of multiple concentric convex mirrors within a flat-mirrored surface.

Scagliola originated in Bavaria, and was kept secret until the mid-17th century. Around 1600 Blasius Fistulator and his son Wilhelm decorated the Reich Kapelle for Maximillian I: Wilhelm did a series of scagliola scenes from the life of Mary, including four landscapes, based on engravings by Albrecht Dürer. This tabletop's Rhineland hunting scene would have come from a contemporary painting or engraving by a Dutch or Flemish master such as Aelbert Cuyp, who traveled along the Rhine in the early 1650s. Maximillian I’s grandson, Max Emmanuel, moved some of Fistulator’s scagliola panels, reinstalling them circa 1725 in the Kammerkapelle. Johann Baptiste Zimmermann decorated the ceiling with stucco motifs that reappear in the frieze of this table's base, which appears to date from around 1725. It is possible that the top existed first as a panel on a wall: possibly one of the ones moved in 1725 by Max Emmanuel.