Pedestal desk
attributed to Tatham Bailey & Saunders (fl. 1803-1827), London
Category
Furniture
Date
circa 1815
Materials
Mahogany, oak, brass, leather
Measurements
75.2 x 223.5 x 114.5 cm
Place of origin
London
Order this imageCollection
Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire
NT 514610
Summary
A mahogany and brass mounted pedestal desk, attributed to Tatham Bailey & Saunders (fl. 1803-1827), London, circa 1811 -1815 The top with tooled leather inset and a brass edge with applied anthemion corners. One side with three frieze drawers above a pair of paneled cupboard doors enclosing three slides to one side and a folio compartmented cupboard to the other. The opposite side with a similar configuration but with one pedestal fitted with drawers. Each pedestal raised on plinth bases and joined by a stretcher to the kneehole. The cupboards flanked by brass edged pilasters with brass capitals and the paneled sides with large leopards mask handles.
Full description
The desk bears very close similarities to one of at least five of similar variation made by the firm Tatham Bailey & Saunders of Mount Street, London between c.1811 and 1815. The most splendid was supplied to the Prince Regent for the Blue Velvet Room at Carlton House in 1811 (Hugh Roberts, For The King's Pleasure, London 2001, p. 341). In the same year, Tatham, Bailey & Saunders, supplied an almost identical desk to that for Carlton House, but lacking its intricate gilt-bronze gallery and gilt-bronze lion heads on the sides, to William Lee Antoine for Colworth House, Bedfordshire (Exceptional Sale, Christie’s London, 10 July 2014, lot. 15). The Anglesey Abbey desk, acquired by the 1st Lord Fairhaven is a simpler version of this desk. A fourth, significantly larger one was made for Sackville Tufton, 9th Earl of Thanet for Hatfield Place, Ashford, Kent (The Property of the News of the World Ltd, Christie’s London, 27 November 1969, lot. 142). The most famous of the series was of a more obviously Grecian type, made in 1815 for the 1st Marquess of Anglesey, cavalry commander at Waterloo (Christie’s London, 8 July 1993, lot. 125).
Provenance
Bequeathed to the National Trust by Huttleston Rogers Broughton, 1st Lord Fairhaven (1896-1966) with the house and the rest of the contents.
Makers and roles
attributed to Tatham Bailey & Saunders (fl. 1803-1827), London, furniture designer
References
Roberts, Hugh 'For The King's Pleasure', London 2001, , p. 341