Side table
workshop of Rattee & Kett (1855 - 1926)
Category
Furniture
Date
circa 1860
Materials
Carrara marble, parcel-gilding, painted pine
Measurements
92.5 x 228.7 x 91.5 cm
Place of origin
Cambridge
Order this imageCollection
Wimpole, Cambridgeshire
NT 206587.4
Summary
A painted pine, parcel-gilt and marble-topped pedestal side table, English, circa 1860, designed and made by Rattee & Kett (1855 - 1926) of Cambridge. Part of a set of four pieces of furniture comprising a pair of serving tables, a pedestal sideboard and this side table. Topped by a slab of Carrara marble above friezes edged by egg and dart-carved gilt mouldings. The front frieze with a projecting block at either end, mounted with a gilt paterae and above an acanthus-carved and scrolling truss-like leg. Each front leg raised on an ebonized platform base and tied to the rear leg with a front-to-back stretcher. Each rear leg with an acanthus-carved and scrolling truss on its outer face. The front frieze mounted with a carved and parcel-gilt apron centred with the mask of Hercules draped in the pelt of the Nemean lion stretching in swags at each side to a pendant ring. -- For years it was believed that this table was made in the 1740s. In an article published in Country Life in December 1967, it was described as a 'Kentian table...probably designed by Flitcroft' and comparisons have been made with a drawing in the V & A by Matthias Lock. Indeed, this table was included in the 1985 Treasure Houses of Britain exhibition and was described in the catalogue as dating from circa 1742 - 1745. Newly discovered designs by Rattee & Kett, stonemasons and woodcarvers of Cambridge, however, show that this table was designed by them in 1860. The drawing is inscribed 'TABLE for END OF ROOM (opposite Side Board)...Rattee & Kett, Cambridge...5 Feb 1860' showing that it was designed to face the sideboard that is NT 206587.3 in the Dining Room at Wimpole. This drawing also challenges an earlier assumption that this set of furniture was made in advance of the visit to Wimpole by Queen Victoria in 1843 as the firm was only called Rattee & Kett after 1855.
Provenance
Probably commissioned by Charles Philip Yorke, 4th Earl of Hardwicke (1799 - 1873), circa 1860. Listed in the Inventory taken at Wimpole in 1965 in the Gallery (p. 5). Visible in the West Gallery at Wimpole in photographs published by Country Life on 7th December 1967. Possibly the table listed in the Red Dining Room in an Inventory taken in 1881 as a '7ft carved and gilt side table with wreath decorations and mask head with marble top'. Presumably purchased with the house when George Bambridge (1892 - 1943) and Elsie Bambridge (1896 - 1976) bought a largely empty Wimpole in 1938. The hall and contents were bequeathed to the National Trust in 1976 by Elsie Bambridge.
Makers and roles
workshop of Rattee & Kett (1855 - 1926), carver
References
Adshead 2007: David Adshead, Wimpole Architectural drawings and topographical views, The National Trust, 2007, 130, Figure 289 Adshead, 2007: 'A Table Overturned', in ABC Bulletin II (January, 2007), 6 Hussey, 1967: Christopher Hussey. “Wimpole Hall, Cambridgeshire - II” Country Life 7 December 1967, 1466 - 1471, 1470 - 1, Figures 8 and 11