Object Description
This outstanding and important writing table has a rectangular top above two cedar-lined frieze drawers. It is raised on rectangular section flared end supports with parcel gilt and ebonised scroll spandrels and feet joined by a flat brass inlaid stretcher. The decoration comprises superb quality amboyna, ebony and calamander veneers. The top has a central amboyna field within a Boulle work border of inlaid ormolu foliate sprays, while the sides have further amboyna panels within ormolu stringing and calamander crossbanding. With a copy of the invoice stating it was from the Wellington Collection and probably sold by the 8th Duke. English, circa 1815.
Height: 29¼ in (74.5cm) Width: 50¼ in (127.5cm) Depth: 26in (66 cm)
Provenance: Lord Gerald Wellesley, 7th Duke of Wellington, possibly 11 Titchfield St, London
Temple Williams Ltd 1963 (See the Country Life advertisement below)
Philip Duncan Ltd, sold in 1969
A distinguished American private collection
Published: M. Jourdain and R. Fastnedge Regency Furniture 1795-1830, London, 1965
p.77 fig. 179
Country Life “Summer Calendar” 1963, p.51
Lord Gerald Wellesley, 7th Duke of Wellington (1885-1972) was an Anglo-Irish diplomat (1908-1919) who served as a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Grenadier Guards during World War II and then became an architect. His collection at 11 Titchfield Terrace was one of the first major regency furniture collections in Britain. In 1947, he gave Apsley House and its important contents (the Wellington Collection) to the nation with the proviso that he and his family were able to occupy a large portion of it. He married Dorothy Violet Ashton in 1914, daughter of Robert Ashton of Croughton. See Wick Antiques, Britain on the High Seas: Trafalgar, Trophies and Trade, pp. 39-44, for a pair of cannons from the Battle of Waterloo owned by Robert Ashton