The Kedleston Scagliola Tables
probably Robert Adam (Kirkcaldy 1728 - London 1792)
Category
Furniture
Date
circa 1760 - 1763
Materials
Mahogany, oak
Measurements
75.5 x 135.5 x 66.5 cm
Collection
Kedleston Hall, Derbyshire
NT 108604.2.2
Summary
One of a pair of mahogany side tables, English, possibly designed by Robert Adam circa 1760-3. Commissioned as a pair by Nathaniel Curzon, 1st Baron Scarsdale to support Italian scagliola table tops by Domenica Bartoli, circa 1759. Originally commissioned for Lord Scarsdale's dressing room in the Family Pavilion at Kedleston. With an egg and dart moulding, and a frieze of carved acanthus leaves interspersed with fluting, spirally turned legs and gadrooned collars to the feet.
Full description
The bases are of unusual form for the early 1760s and may well have been designed by Robert Adam, the maker is unknown but two possibilities are either John Linnell (London 1729-1796) known to have made most of the seating furniture in the state rooms at Kedleston or James Gravenor (Derby fl.1741-68), a local craftsman who was responsibly for various items of furniture at Kedleston including the desk in the library and the bookcases. He also carved columns, door cases and mirror frames for the Drawing Room and pier glasses with oak leafed frames and ornamental detail for an organ case for the Music Room. His greatest achievement is perhaps the fine palm tree bed for the State Bedroom on the west front which he completed in 1768. Nathaniel Curzon employed local craftsmen working from Adam designs to keep down the high costs of production. There is a font at Croome Court, (6th Earl of Coventry) which bears similarities in design to the table bases, the twist fluted column and gadrooned collar are similar and the font carries an attribution to Adam, circa 1760. See FHS newsletter no. 20*. James Weedon (May 2018)
Provenance
The tops commissioned by Nathaniel Curzon, 1st Baron Scarsdale for his dressing room in the Family Pavilion c.1759, probably from Domenico Bartoli, Italy, the bases made either in London or Derbyshire sometime after 1759 and probably from a design by Robert Adam. Curzon Collection acquired by gift as part of the transfer of Kedleston Hall to The National Trust in 1986.
Makers and roles
probably Robert Adam (Kirkcaldy 1728 - London 1792), designer possibly James Gravenor (fl.1760 - 1770), furniture designer and maker possibly John Linnell (1729 - 1796), furniture designer and maker possibly Robert Robinson, joiner possibly Joseph Hall, carver
References
Dictionary of British and Irish furniture makers online (1660-1840) FHS 2017