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Gate leg table

Ref: 2487
  • Designer

    Perhaps designed by Ernest Gimson (1864-1919)

  • Detail

    Mahogany, with inlaid decoration

    59 x 81.3 x 20.6 cm (closed)

    59 x 81.3 x 85 cm (open)

    English, perhaps 1890s

  • Provenance

    Presumably a patron with the initials ‘K.C.M.’; […]; JS Auctions, 24 September 2016, bt David Pickup; with Blairman, 2016; private collection

  • Literature

    Fischer Fine Art, Truth, Beauty and Design: Victorian, Edwardian and Later Decorative Arts, exhibition catalogue, 1986, no. 152 (for a ‘tea table’ of the same design, without a monogram)

  • Notes

    In the Fischer Fine Art catalogue, the  table is described as follows:

    Tea Table

    Mahogany with ‘Rose and Briar’ design inlay in palm wood.  Made by Kenton & Co. c. 1891.  The attribution is based upon the close resemblance of the inlay to that upon a cabinet now in the Victoria & Albert Museum, which is also by Kenton & Co.

    The cabinet on stand to which the catalogue refers (CIRC.404:1 to 4-1964) does indeed have flowers and leaves that can be compared to the Fischer table and the sample offered here. The V&A cabinet was designed by Ernest Gimson and manufactured by Kenton & Co. (1891-92) in 1891.

    Moreover, the briar rose pattern survives amongst the Gimson designs at The Wilson (1941. 222: 692), see below.

    Photographs of the 1891 Kenton & Co. exhibition at Barnard’s Inn do not show a table like the present example, although its design does not appear inconsistent with manufacture emanating from this group at this period; see Frances Collard ‘Kenton & Co’, The Decorative Arts Society 1850 to the Present Journal Number Twenty (1996), pp. 29-33.

    Without further evidence, a firm attribution cannot be made for what would appear to be an early example of English Arts & Crafts furniture.