A fine Regency gilt-brass-mounted part-ebonized mahogany, ebony and kingwood library drum table circa 1810

The circular drum top fitted with a gilt-tooled green leather lining withing a kingwood cross-banding, the conforming frieze fitted with four drawers alternating with four swinging triangular-shaped doors, raised on four turned columns on a quatripartite plinth fitted with squared ormolu flowerheads and raised on downswept legs carved with acanthus leaves and ending in ormolu feather-molded claw feet on casters.

Collection of the 4th Earl Poulett 91756-1819), Hinton House, Hinton St. George, Somerset
Thence by descent to George Amias Fitzwarrine Poulett, 8th Earl Poulett (1909–1973)
Mallet & Co. London
Sale of the collection of Mr. and Mrs. René Rivkin, Sotheby's Australia, June 3, 2001, Lot 241

Colin G. Winn, The Pouletts of Hinton St George, Phoenix Mill, Gloucestershire, 1995, p. 152

Overall good condition; beautifully made with mahogany drawer linings; the table is sturdy and has a lovely color and surface. The later leather top with considerable age and in very good condition with minor rubbing and wear to the gilding and with usually old stains, scratches and bruises consistent with age and use; the cross-banded edge with some minor old patches; two legs with old repaired breaks just beyond the feet with some infilling and minor losses to carving; the ormolu feet appear to have been re-gilded at some point and with rubbing and wear overall with loss to gilding; two drawers lacking a lock plate each; one swing-drawer locked; some restorations to ebony and ebonized stringing; some old marks and scratches overall consistent with age and use.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

John Poulett, 4^th Earl of Poulett

The son of Vere, 3^rd Earl Poulett,  John Poulett was born April 3, 1756, marrying first Sophia, daughter of Admiral Sir Charles Pocock, K.B., in 1782.  He succeeded to the title in 1788 and was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Somerset in 1794 and was installed as Knight of the Thistle the same year.  By 1795, he became Lord of the Bedchamber to George III, a position he held for the remainder of his life.  John stayed close to the Royal family, George III becoming a godfather to the Earl’s fifth son.  John also became good friends with the Prince of Wales and his brothers.  After his first wife died in 1811, he married Margaret, the widow of Sir John Smith Burges, Bt., a wealthy East Indian Company member, in 1816.  The Duke of Clarence, later William IV, gave the bride away.  The fourth earl died in 1819, and was succeeded by his eldest son John.

Hinton House

The Pouletts have resided at Hinton House since the 1490s.  By 1627, the 1st Baron Poulett (d. 1649) improved and enlarged the house adding a new south wing in the manner of Inigo Jones, completing it in 1636.  Two further wings were built in the 1650s.  In the early 18th Century, John, 1st Earl Poulett (1663-1743) remodeled the Long Gallery, and work continued throughout the century where wings were joined to the house proper.  Between 1743 and 1789 the house underwent further transformation, some of the old Tudor house being demolished and a new front being erected.  By 1796, the 4^th Earl employed Sir John Soane to make drawings and plans to further alter the house in the neoclassical fashion.  However, these plans were rejected in favor of James Wyatt’s Gothic designs, which remodeled the grand saloon as well as the entrance hall fitting it with Gothic paneling and ornaments, which was completed by Jeffrey Wyattville, Wyatt’s nephew in 1814, after Wyatt’s death in 1813.

Furniture in the Collection

Just as Hinton House was updated and changed over time, so did the tastes of the Pouletts who continued to commission great pieces of furniture from the leading cabinet-makers of the period and in the most fashionable styles.  The famous Kentian Elephant-head form console tables, now in the Gerstenfeld Collection, (illus. Lennox-Boyd, p. 35, fig. 19 and p. 199, fig. 15) like the present table,  were also in the Gothic Gallery and most likely commissioned by John, 1^st Earl of Poulett in the 1730s.  Fifteen years on, John, 2nd Earl Poulett commissioned an important suite of rococo furniture including a magnificent large mirror and console table flanked by caryatids as well as a pair of figural torchères from Matthias Locke for the Tapestry Room.  The mirror and table are now in the Victoria and Albert Museum.  Furthermore, John, 4^th Earl of Poulett, commissioned a giltwood table with monopodia headed by bearded masks from Edward Wyatt (carver and gilder), a relation of James Wyatt in the early 19^th century.  Wyatt had a number of Royal commissions working at Carlton House, Buckingham Palace, St. James’s Palace and the Royal Pavilion at Brighton.  It is likely that the present table was commissioned around the same time.  All of these pieces were sold at Sotheby’s, London November 1, 1968. An inventory of the effects of the 4th Earl, taken on his death in 1819, may well refer to the present table in its record of a "mahogany circular table for writing" in the grandest of Hinton’s state rooms, the Saloon (Somerset Archive and Record Service. DD/PT Box 9: Inventory of the effects at the residence of the late Earl Poulett at Hinton St. George. Somersetshire, May 15th 1819).

Comparative Literature:

Edward Lennox-Boyd,  Masterpieces of English Furniture, The Gerstenfeld Collection, London, 1998