Side table
probably Robert Adam (Kirkcaldy 1728 - London 1792)
Category
Furniture
Date
circa 1780
Materials
Softwood, deal, possibly lime(?), marble and paint
Measurements
83.5 x 183 x 89 cm
Place of origin
England
Collection
Saltram, Devon
NT 871341.3
Summary
A painted and marble-topped side or serving table, English, circa 1780 - 1785, probably designed by Robert Adam (1728 - 1792), part of a set of dining room furniture including a pair of dining room urns on pedestals [NT 871341.2.1 & .2.2] and a fixed serving table or sideboard [NT 871341.1]. This serving table topped by a slab of grey and purple-veined black marble on a painted base. The front frieze with applied white-painted husks of garlands'and rosettes and centred by a rectangular tablet with a central oval, painted with a reclining female figure in a landscape, with a basket of fruit and flowers by her side, and a floral circlet atop her head. The frieze with rectangular projections heading the four front legs. These, and the two rear legs, of tapering square-section form, topped by blocks applied with oval rosettes and with three flutes to each face, painted white. The feet with moulded square blocks with 'sunken' centres. The marble is of a type called 'Red Radford' found near Plymouth. This table top is one of several at Saltram sourced from nearby quarries, where fire surrounds are also made of local marbles (information provided by Gordon Walkden, Emeritus Professor of Geology, University of Aberdeen, 2018).
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 a fixed 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 the sideboard [NT 871341.31]. One of the latter drawings is dated 23rd November 1780. No drawing of either the sideboard or this side table survive. Some believe that the furniture was made by Henry Stockman, a man variously described as Saltram's estate carpenter and estate gardener. In 1756, 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 attributed to Antonio Zucchi, RA (Venice 1726 - Rome 1796), artist attributed to Angelica Kauffman RA (Chur 1741 – Rome 1807), artist