Doe and Hope

Description

In the Regency style the mahogany side or hall table of classic proportions and appealing colour, the frieze incorporating a cockbeaded central drawer with ebony stringing and the original knob handles, the top with further stringing to the border in the form of a greek key, the whole standing on elegant slender tapering legs with further strung decoration surviving from the last quarter of the nineteenth century.

The condition of the table is generally good, it is completely original and the drawer runs freely and she stands sturdy. The rear right corner has a crack to the top but it is not particularly detrimental to the whole with the top showing surface marks and a couple of old watermarks. The cockbeading on the drawer has a small section of loss. Overall she is perfectly presentable and useable.

The influences on Regency design and taste were legion from Sheraton’s neoclassicism, Henry Holland’s Anglo-French taste, the Greek revival of Thomas Hope, and the Chinoiserie favoured by the Prince Regent, to an interest in the Gothic, Old English and rustic. The Regency attitude to interior decoration often involved treating each room as a unit with individual furnishings and wall decorations in harmony of theme or colour scheme. This table certainly brings in the Greek revival elements of the period.

A smart and versatile piece with attractive detailing that is as elegant as it is well proportioned.