Metamorphic library steps
after Robert Campbell (fl.1754 - 1793)
Category
Furniture
Date
1850 - 1890
Materials
Mahogany, brass
Measurements
119 cm (H); 50 cm (W); 78 cm (D)
Place of origin
London
Order this imageCollection
Speke Hall, Merseyside
NT 1196512
Summary
A mahogany metamorphic library table and library steps, after a design by Robert Campbell (1754-1780) London, second half of 19th century. Modelled as a table, the top hinged and opening to reveal a set of steps with two foot treads to the underside of the top and further treads rising from the recess, raised on square section legs.
Full description
Robert Campbell, upholder to the Prince of Wales, presented a related design for metamorphic library steps in 1774 which was later to be illustrated by Thomas Sheraton in The Cabinet-maker and Upholsterer's Drawing Book, plate V, in 1802 (Figure 3). Sheraton comments this design "was first made for the King, and highly approved of by him." Sheraton went on to explain the benefit of this dual purpose table and ladder commenting "the steps may be put up in half a minute and the whole may be taken down and enclosed within the table frame in about the same time." One of these sets of steps enclosed in a mahogany Pembroke table is in the Library at Saltram, Devon (NT 871302) and was supplied to John Parker in 1777 at a cost of £6 10s. James Weedon (January 2019)
Makers and roles
after Robert Campbell (fl.1754 - 1793), cabinetmaker after Robert Campbell (fl.1754 - 1793), designer
References
Gilbert (1996): Christopher Gilbert, Pictorial Dictionary of Marked London Furniture 1700 - 1840 (1996) Sheraton, Thomas, 1751-1806 cabinet-maker and upholsterer's drawing-book. In four parts. 1802.