A GEORGE III PAPIER-MÂCHÉ AND JAPANNED CENTER TABLE ATTRIBUTED TO HENRY CLAY circa 1775

Norman Adams Ltd., London
Sold, Christie's, New York, Property from the Estate of Mildred S. Hilson, October 14, 1995, lot 372 ($27,600)

Designed in the neo-classical or Etruscan manner, the present table, although unsigned, can be confidently attributed to Henry Clay (1772-d. 1812), the japanner and papier-mâché manufacturer of Birmingham and London.  Apprenticed as a printer from 1740-1749, in 1772 he took out a patent for a 'new improved paper-ware', the process involving 'pasting sheets of paper together then oiling, varnishing and stove hardening them'.  This extremely durable material proved eminently suitable for coaches, carriages, sedan chairs and, as in the present lot, furniture, and 'all kinds of other vessels, black with orange figures in the style of Etruscan vases' (Georg Christoph Lichtenberg's visits to England as described in his letters and diaries translated and annotated by M. L. Mare and W.H. Quarrell, Oxford, 1938).

This table is an interesting example of this style, the japanned wood frame and legs being decorated in 'black and orange', whereas the papier-mâché top is centered by a tablet painted en grisaille with a classical scene depicting a battle between amazons and warriors. This is taken directly from plate 66 of the second volume of Collection of Etruscan, Greek, and Roman  Antiquities from the Cabinet of the Hon. W. Hamilton His Britannick Majesty's Envoy Extraordinary an Plenipotentiary at the Court of Naples.  This ambitious publication by Pierre François Hugues, the self-styled Baron D'Hancarville, primarily illustrated the extensive collection of Greek  vases formed by William Hamilton, the hand-colored plates being subsequently used as design soures, not only by japanners such as Clay, but also by manufacturers of porcelain such as Josiah Wedgwood.

A Pembroke table decorated in this style, probably commissioned by Robert Child, is in the collection at Osterley House and was described in the 1782 inventory as 'richly japanned by Clay (See: Maurice Tomlin, Catalogue of Adam Period Furniture, p. 84, J/5),  and a tea caddy impressed CLAY, apparently japanned with the same distinctive striped pattern found on the present table, is illustrated by Christopher Gilbert in Pictorial Dictionary of Marked London Furniture 1700-1840, p. 141, pl. 202.