Lot 390
A late George III period Scottish mahogany serving table
Auction: 19 March 2008 at 11:00 GMT
Description
of serpentine breakfront form, inlaid with ebonised stringing, the brass rear gallery with pineapple finials, the frieze with a central drawer and rosette and anthemion mounts interspersed with lion head masks, on stiff acanthus leaf and spirally reeded tapering legs, ending in bronze hairy paw feet
Dimensions
245cm wide, 148cm high, 76cm deep
Footnote
Note: accompanied by a facsimile of a handwritten note, from a member of Edmonstone family 'this is to confirm the the large Regency side table comes to me diretly from my father and his father (5th Baronet Sir Archibald Edmonstone [1867-1954]) and by earlier descent - of Duntreath Castle, Blanefield, Stirlingshire.'
Duntreath is a castle and estate in Stirlingshire. A 15th-century three-storey keep with a courtyard, Duntreath Castle was a stronghold of the Edmonstones whose lands lay within the powerful earldom of Lennox. Abandoned in the 18th century, the family returned in 1857 to restore and greatly extend the building.
Sir Archibald Edmonstone, 15th of Duntreath and 5th Bt.C.V.O. D.L. was Groom in Waiting to H.M. King Edward VII from 1907-10. He accompanied the King on his state visit to Leningrad in 1908. His youngest sister Alice, who married the Hon. George Keppel, has her place in history as the confidante of King Edward VII. Largely to accommodate the royal entourage Sir Archibald made what the R.C.H.A.M.S. describe as "heterogeneous additions" to Duntreath Castle. The King visited Duntreath when still the Prince of Wales and a hundred people on that occasion are said to have slept in the castle.
The 7th Baronet, inherited Duntreath at the age of twenty two and found himself faced by the problems of the post war age. Costs of maintenance were escalating, heating was enormously expensive, and a house of such a size was nearly impossible to run. Therefore with great reluctance he decided to reduce it to its present size, the work of alteration finishing in 1958.