Set of four yew side tables
Category
Furniture
Date
circa 1755
Materials
Fruitwood, probably pear
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Lacock, Wiltshire
NT 995811
Summary
A set of four fruitwood side tables, English, circa 1755, almost certainly commissioned by John Ivory Talbot (d.1772) for the Great Hall at Lacock Abbey. Each carved in the gothic style, with an inverted breakfront top above a blind tracery carved frieze with punch work panels, pierced quatrefoils and arcaded apron, raised on conforming square section legs and block feet.
Full description
The great Hall was created by John Ivory Talbot in 1754-55 by his architect Sanderson Miller (d.1780). It is an early, and little altered, example of the Gothic style, the first phase of the Gothic revival. The previous Tudor Hall was dismissed by Ivory Talbot as 'horrid' and demolished. The only surviving remnant being the medieval stained glass which he fashioned into a rose window above the front door and the flanking windows. Ivory Talbot specified that the doorcases, windows and chimney piece in his new hall should bt 'in the Gothic taste'. Miller supplied all these together with the cornicing and canopied wall niches and it can therefore be assumed that the tables were also included in the original furnishings. (James Weedon, August 2019)
Provenance
Purchased by the National Trust with the family collection of Lacock Abbey contents, in situ, from Mrs. Petronella Burnett-Brown in December 2009.