A Late George II Carved Mahogany Birdcage-Action Tripod Table, Circa 1760

Geoffrey Blackwell, Esq., O.B.E., thence by descent;

Christie's London, 24 November 2005, lot 10;

Where acquired by Aso O. Tavitian.

Geoffrey Blackwell, OBE (1884-1943) was the director of the food company Crosse and Blackwell, which dates back to 1706 and was one of the first to receive a Royal Warrant from the newly-crowned Queen Victoria in 1837. He collected Georgian furniture as well as modern British art and was closely advised by the great furniture historian R. W. Symonds on his furniture acquisitions. Symonds, who wrote an entire article in Apollo on Blackwell’s furniture collection,¹ advised some of the most important furniture collectors in the early twentieth century, including Percival Griffiths, James Thursby Pelham and E.B. Moller; many of the pieces in their collections are referenced or illustrated in the seminal 1924 publication The Dictionary of English Furniture by Percy Macquoid and Ralph Edwards. An urn stand from the Blackwell Collection and subsequently in the collection of Anne and Gordon Getty was sold Sotheby's New York, 18 June 2024, lot 1082.

¹ R. W. Symonds, 'Furniture in the Collection of Mr Geoffrey Blackwell', Apollo, 23 April 1936.