Serving table
James Paine the Elder (bap. c.1717 - 1789)
Category
Furniture
Date
circa 1750
Materials
Gilt brass, mahogany veneers on deal, oak, paint
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Nostell Priory, West Yorkshire
NT 959746
Summary
A pair of white-painted and mahogany sideboard tables, or serving tables, English, designed by James Paine (1717 - 1789), circa 1750, the brass rails later additions by Robert Adam (1728 - 1792). Both with crossbanded mahogany tops fitted with a gilt brass gallery raised on four balustroid spindles to the rear edge. The table friezes carved with Vitruvian scrolls. The front frieze applied with a ram's mask between a trailing fruiting vine, the end friezes applied with Bacchic satyr's masks. Raised to the front on a pair of truss-type, projecting foliate-carved square-section legs with block feet and to the rear on single conforming legs.
Full description
Paine's design for these tables still exists in the archives, and they are considered amongst his best pieces. Indeed, when Robert Adam came to modify the dining room circa 1772, these tables were kept as part of the room's decorative scheme and were altered only by the addition of 'two brass rails for sideboards', according to a memorandum of 1773. In the 1820s, when a later Winn employed Thomas Ward to make certain modifications at Nostell, these tables were painted to resemble mahogany, but have since been restored to their original colour. The maker of these tables is not known but it is possible that, if Chippendale was working with Paine at Nostell in the 1750s, that they are from his workshop. A drawing by Chippendale in the Victoria & Albert Museum shows a pier table comparable in design, with double bracket supports and hanging garlands. (Megan Wheeler, March 2018)
Provenance
Accepted by HM Treasury in lieu of death duties on the estate of Rowland Winn, 4th Baron Oswald (1916 - 1984), 1986.
Makers and roles
James Paine the Elder (bap. c.1717 - 1789), designer
References
Jackson-Stops 1974: Gervase Jackson-Stops. “Pre-Adam furniture designs at Nostell Priory.” Furniture History 10 (1974): pp.24-37., p. 26 and Plates 11 A & B