Lot 24
A PAIR OF GEORGE III STYLE GILTWOOD MARBLE TOPPED CONSOLE TABLES IN THE MANNER OF WILLIAM KENT
EARLY 20TH CENTURY
The Line of Beauty: A Collector’s Pursuit
Auction: 01 July 2026 from 10:00 BST
Description
with rectangular marble top over a Greek key frieze, raised on carved and painted eagle supports, on moulded plinth bases (2)
Dimensions
95cm wide, 98cm high, 46cm deep
Footnote
The design inspiration for this pair of tables is a carved giltwood and marble topped console table designed by William Kent circa 1730, and now in the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum, London. William Kent (1684-1748) was a leading architect and interior designer in the earlier 18th century. After studying in Italy Kent was introduced to the fashionable world by the third Earl of Burlington, where he became an arbiter of taste and achieved a considerable reputation designing not only houses but much of their contents and interiors. His designs were planned to harmonise with Palladian architecture and baroque decoration, working in a style influenced by French and Italian models. Using gesso and gilt freely to enhance carved ornament, favourite ornaments in his designs are swags of flowers, lion and human masks, anthemion, Vitruvian scrolls, and broadly handled acanthus leaves. In the present examples, the entire support for the table top takes on the form of a single eagle, with its wings outstretched in a symbol of strength and beauty. Frequently presented as a pair, as in the present lot, the eagles were carved in opposition and would most likely have been positioned against piers between windows with mirrors above.