A GEORGE III MAHOGANY LIBRARY TABLE, CIRCA 1775

Christie's New York, 19 October 2000, lot 39

The highly distinctive carved decoration on the legs, with its triple-reeded relief appliques and trailing heart-shaped fretwork, corresponds exactly to that on the stand of a Chinese-style cabinet formerly in the Chinese Room at Claydon House, Buckinghamshire, and now in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London (illustrated in D. Fitzgerald, Georgian Furniture, London 1969, no.76). With its exuberant carved decoration designed and executed by Luke Lightfoot (1722-1789), the Chinese Room is one of the most celebrated Chinoiserie interiors in England and formed part of the refurbishment of the house in the rococo style by Ralph, 2nd Earl Verney (d.1792), between 1757 and 1771. Due to the Earl's rising debts, however, the contents of the house were dispersed at auction in 1784. The offered lot most likely emanates from the same workshop that produced the V & A cabinet and stand, and could conceivably have formed part of the same commission.