Breakfast table
Podmore & Powells
Category
Furniture
Date
1827 - 1829
Materials
Pollard oak, oak, lacquered brass
Measurements
73.5 cm (Height); 137 cm (Diameter)
Place of origin
Chester
Order this imageCollection
Erddig, Wrexham
NT 1146943
Summary
A pollard oak breakfast table, English, 1827-9, by Podmore & Powells (fl.1827-9), cabinet-makers, upholsterers, carvers and gilders of Chester. Having a circular top and plain apron edged with an angular cockbead . The top tilting and with large lacquered brass catch. Raised on a triangular column set onto a concave-sided triangular plinth, the base of the column with applied gadrooned collar. All raised on three foliate and scroll-carved oak feet.
Full description
One of a small collection of pieces of pollard oak furniture at Erddig, this is the only piece labelled for Podmore & Powells, a firm of upholsters and cabinet-makers based in nearby Chester, who were briefly in partnership between 1827 and 1829. In October 1829, the partnership was dissolved and the firm's assets were disposed at an auction on 16 October. Pollard oak was in vogue in the 1820s, and is sometimes called 'brown oak'. In September 2003, Christie's sold a pair of mahogany chiffoniers, bearing the same Podmore & Powells label as the sofa table at Erddig, probably supplied to Richard, 2nd Marquess of Westminster (1795-1869) of Eaton Hall, Cheshire. Now dispersed about the house, the collection of George IV pollard oak furniture at Erddig was probably purchased to furnish a particular room by Simon Yorke II (1771-1834) and his wife Margaret (1778-1848) in the late 1820s. The other pieces made of pollard oak include a pair of sofa tables [NT 1146939.1 & .2] and a set of seat furniture, raised on lyre-shaped supports [NT 1146948]. This table was reputedly repaired by Barber of Wrexham in 1922.
Provenance
Given by Philip Yorke III (1905-1978) along with the estate, house and contents to the National Trust in 1973.
Marks and inscriptions
Underside of top: PODMORE UPH Cabinet-M...ers APP HOTEL ROW...ATE ...r [only parts of the label survive].
Makers and roles
Podmore & Powells, cabinet-maker