Doe and Hope

Description

The Regency period parcel gilt and ebonised hall table, having applied gilt metal decoration and plaster mouldings, standing on brass paw feet.

The condition of the table is truly country house, i.e. tired but thoroughly evocative. There are several deficiencies to note there is a section of moulding missing, the front plaster cameo has losses, and there are several scratches to the top with the whole showing scuffs and paint loss. We love pieces that show their battle scars and remain in un-restored condition. The table is of fine original quality and could obviously be fully restored if so desired.

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.

How well this piece with its gilding, ebony, redundancy, and brass all mellowed and glazed over by the hand of time, blends so well into modern interiors.