Mahogany and bronzed metal octagonal centre table

This centre table stands on an octagonal square-edged solid mahogany plinth base. Upon the plinth sit four bronzed metal chimerical griffin supports. The griffins support an octagonal frieze, decorated with sixteen gilt metal rosettes. Above the frieze rests the tabletop. The top is octagonal in form, of solid mahogany, and is edged with a decorative foliate moulding.

The distinctive griffin base of this table is after a design by the renowned English sculptor and furniture maker, George Bullock, who worked at the turn of the 19^th Century. Bullock was inspired by an antique fragment of a table sketched by the English architect Charles Heathcote Tatham, which he published in his 1799 treatise Etchings, Representing The Best Examples of Ancient Ornamental Architecture. This fragment, from the Vatican, has inspired much furniture. A particularly fine pietra dura and marble example, produced in Venice but with a base by Bullock, was sold in Christies in 2005. See lot 50 from Christie’s London, “Two Late Regency Collectors”, 9 June 2005.