Untitled
probably Robert Adam (Kirkcaldy 1728 - London 1792)
Category
Furniture
Date
circa 1780 - 1785
Materials
Mahogany, softwood, possibly lime(?), rosewood, paint, brass
Measurements
90 x 510 x 79.5 cm
Collection
Saltram, Devon
NT 871341.1
Summary
A mahogany and painted fitted sideboard, or serving table, English, circa 1780 - 1785, probably designed by Robert Adam (1728 - 1792), part of a set of dining room furniture including a side table [NT 871341.3] and mirror [NT 871341.4] and a pair of painted urns on pedestals [NT 871341.2.1 and .2.2]. The mahogany top of three sections, bolted together to the underside, and inlaid to the top with an band of rosewood edged with a lighter wood, either holly or satinwood, the band inset from the edge about 2in. The top's side with a sunken reserve along its length, which is applied with a brass guilloche mount. The base painted and topped by an egg and dart moulding above a frieze with a Greek key-type band framing carved sprays of hops alternating with sprays of grapes and vines. The twelve tapering square-section and fluted legs topped by a moulding carved with acanthus above an upper block decorated to each side with a circular floral patera. The feet carved with stiff leaves and with an edge moulding with a reeded or gadroon-carved upper edge. -- The castellated line which meanders across this table's frieze, the rectangular openings enclosing either a rosette or a harebell, is very to the design of the frieze of a side table at Harewood House noted by Christopher Gilbert as 'possibly by Thomas Chippendale, c. 1772'.
Full description
The library at Saltram (designed by Adam in 1768 - 70) was converted into a new dining room in 1780 - 81 through the replacement of the bookcases with new Zucchi paintings, the addition of this sideboard in the bowed end, and the filling-in of the windows for niches, the whole painted in green and grey. There is some dispute as to the extent of Adam's work in this conversion although drawings survive from his office sketching a mirror [SM Adam volume 20/237] and the painted vases on pedestals [SM Adam Volume 25/158 & 159] which now flank this sideboard. One of the latter drawings is dated 23rd November 1780. No drawing of either this sideboard or the side table (NT 871341.3) survive. Some believe that the furniture was made by Henry (or Richard) Stockman, a man variously described as Saltram's estate carpenter and estate gardener. In 1756, a Henry Stockman of Plympton St Mary, joiner, agreed a lease with John Parker of Boringdon, esquire, for a dwelling house and a herb garden at Colebrook. The Parker family refer to Stockman in correspondence and he is known to have built a kitchen at Saltram at the turn of the 19th century in collaboration with Thomas Parlby (d. 1802).
Provenance
Almost certainly designed by Robert Adam (1728 - 1792) circa 1780 and commissioned by John Parker (1734 - 1788), 1st Baron Boringdon. Thence by descent. At Saltram by 1951 and accepted by HM Treasury in lieu of full payment of Estate Duty from the Executors of Edmund Robert Parker (1877-1951), 4th Earl of Morley and transferred on loan to NT Saltram in 1957 and transferred as an outright gift to NT in 1984 under s.9 of the Heritage Act 1980 to be maintained and preserved for display to the public at Saltram House with which they have a significant association.
Makers and roles
probably Robert Adam (Kirkcaldy 1728 - London 1792), designer
References
Gilbert (1978): Christopher Gilbert, The Life & Work of Thomas Chippendale (1978), 2 volumes., Vol. 2, p. 272, Figure 497