A REGENCY MAHOGANY SERVING-TABLE

Perhaps from the Earls of Lichfield's Staffordshire seat of Shugborough where the dining-room furnishings were replaced in the early 19th century, for example a set of at least twenty-one dining-chairs in an austere Grecian design with pierced palmette in the back (NT 1270731). Interestingly, the pair of large serving-tables now at Shugborough are slightly earlier in date (c. 1790) and were transferred from Attingham Park for display at Shugborough around 1966 (NT 1270758.1-2).

This serving-table or sideboard is characteristic of the types of splendid furnishings developed in the early 19th century for the adornment of classical dining-rooms. Its design conforms to a much later design published by Henry Whitaker in his Practical Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterers Treasury of Designs, 1847, where it was described as a 'Sideboard and Wine-Cooler. Elizabethan Style' while that design holds for the present piece, its detailing is very different and reflects elements of early 19th century designs published in George Smith's Collection of Designs for Household Furniture and Interior Decoration, 1808.