Harlequin table
manner of Thomas Potter (1718-1759)
Category
Furniture
Date
circa 1740
Materials
Padouk, baize and brass
Measurements
83 x 74 x 74 cm
Place of origin
Guangzhou
Order this imageCollection
Petworth House and Park, West Sussex
NT 485434
Summary
A padouk writing, games and tea 'harlequin' table, circa 1740, probably made in Guangzhou (Canton), China, and possibly after a design by Thomas Potter (fl, 1737) of High Holborn, London. With a triple hinged lid opening to a baize-lined interior with fitted with small drawers and pigeon-holes, on cabriole legs carved to the knee with stylised lion's heads terminated by paw and ball feet.
Provenance
By descent, until the death in 1952 of the 3rd Lord Leconfield, who had given Petworth to the National Trust in 1947, and whose nephew and heir, John Wyndham, 6th Lord Leconfield and 1st Lord Egremont (1920-72) arranged for the acceptance of the major portion of the collections at Petworth in lieu of death duties (the first ever such arrangement) in 1956 by H.M.Treasury.
Makers and roles
manner of Thomas Potter (1718-1759), designer
References
Clemmensen 1985: Tove Clemmensen, 'Some Furniture made in China in the English Style, Exported from Canton to Denmark 1735, 1737 and 1738', in Furniture History XXI (1985), 174-80