Neoclassical Table In Blackened Pear Wood

Blackened pear tree and slate top.
20th century work.


Table with four claw feet topped with a scroll from which palm leaf motifs develop in the central part.

This table is to be related to the model illustrated by Percier and Fontaine in their Recueil de décorations intérieures, pl. XIII, and the table designed by Thomas Hope in The Househould furniture, pl. XII.

The common source of inspiration for these two pieces of furniture is an ancient porphyry bathtub that was located in the Pantheon in Rome before being integrated into the tomb of Pope Clement XII in the Basilica of Saint John Lateran. This bathtub has the same claw feet topped with two facing volutes. Thomas Hope was familiar with it through the engravings of Charles Heathcote Tatham and his work Etchings... of ancient ornamental architecture.

Our model features the same central motif as the drawings by Thomas Hope, from which it is strongly inspired.

Bibliography

Recueil de décorations intérieures comprenant tout ce qui a rapport à l'ameublement [...] Charles Percier et Pierre Fontaine, 1812.
Thomas Hope Regency Designer, ed. David Watkin & Philip Hewat-Jaboor.
Household furniture, Thomas Hope, 1807.