Lot 36
£756
Auction: 11 October 2023 at 10:00 BST
oak
Provenance: Paul Shutler
Note: Street designed these tables for the interior of his Law Courts (now The Royal Courts of Justice), opened by Queen Victoria in 1882. The first room to be completed, indeed the only room within Street’s lifetime, was the Barrister’s or Bar room in 1880. Street used the firm Collinson & Lock to supply furniture including two centre tables, two side tables and 24 chairs. Later, in 1882, after Street’s untimely death in 1881, Collinson and Lock were asked to supply further items of furniture of the same designs as the firm had previously made. The two architects entrusted with completing the building were Street’s friend Arthur William Blomfield (see lot 31) and his son Arthur Edmund Street. This time the budget was far tighter so savings were required and the elaborately carved panels seen at the ends of the original tables were omitted. A number of these later tables of the same design as the current lot remain in the Courts today.