A George III Specimen Marble-Top Mahogany Side Table, Circa 1770

The collection of Mr. and Mrs. Edwin H. Herzog, Sotheby's New York, 12-13 April 1985, lot 335

The carved frieze design is based on that of the Temple of Vespasian and Titus in the Roman Forum, called the Temple of Jupiter Tonans (Thundering Jove) in the 18th century. It appears on p.135 of Les edifices antiques de Rome dessinés et mesurés très exactement (Paris 1682) by the French artist Antoine Babuty Desgodetz (1653–1728), who had been despatched to Rome by King Louis XIV to record the city's ancient monuments and ruins in a volume of engravings to serve as a reference for artists and architects. The work was highly influential, and reeditions were published in 1729 and 1779. An English translation and reproduction of the engravings was published starting in 1771 by George Marshall, probably commissioned by George III in response to the growing popularity of the study of antiquity by connoisseurs and Grand Tourists, reflected in the architectural and interior designs of William Chambers, James 'Athenian' Stuart and Robert Adam. The temple frieze was also depicted by the neoclassical Roman designer and draughtsman Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778) in his Veduti di Roma.