Side table, oak and pine veneered with burr walnut, with walnut legs of inverted S-shape resting on stepped square feet. Their outer sides are carved with acanthus leaves and imbricated discs. Top sides have fluted frieze and stylised foliage. Plain top.

While it is difficult to associate this table with a specific entry in one of the Wardrobe accounts, it conforms closely to furniture made for the royal palaces in the 1730s, in particular to furniture supplied by Benjamin Goodison (see nos. 108-9), which was designed in a robust classical manner. In 1721 the passing of the Naval Stores Act removed import duties on timber brought from British colonies and stimulated widespread use of mahogany. The Wardrobe Accounts reveal that mahogany was generally employed for utilitarian furniture such as gaming-tables, dining-tables, circular tables with a ‘claw’ foot or base, while walnut continued to be reserved for higher quality pieces. Even so, it is unusual for a piece made at this period which relies on carved detail to be executed in walnut, especially when mahogany was freely available. This table may be an instance of the higher status of walnut as a timber compared to mahogany, a situation which reversed in the middle years of the 18th century. The simple scrolled outline of the legs and their carved elements derive firmly from classical sources. These sources were familiar to William Kent and design of this table may be attributed to him. Walnut (and mahogany) furniture such as this was probably intended for use in the private apartments of George II or Frederick, Prince of Wales’s; whereas the furniture used in the State Apartment would have been entirely gilded (with the possible exception of some functional chairs and stools).

Text adapted from The First Georgians: Art and Monarchy 1714 - 1760, London, 2014