280
743
AN IMPORTANT GEORGE III NEO-CLASSICAL GILTWOOD AND GESSO PAINTED ‘D’
SHAPED PIER-TABLE,
c.1770, the top with central sunburst and a wide border with a scroll and griffin flanked urn, trailing ivy and pearl
border, the fluted frieze with rams heads on turned fluted legs. 122cm wide, 55cm deep, 84cm
This lot has a traditional provenance of Headfort house and this has much merit as it corresponds to the extant
furnishings supplied to the Earl of Bective c.1775, and more specifically it can be compared directly to a pair of pier
tables from the Green Drawing room recently acquired by The National Museum, one of which is illustrated, Peill
& Glin, “Irish Furniture” p.219.
The Kinght of Glin considered these tables to be Irish and posited that the plasterer John McCullough was
responsible for the distinctive frieze of ram’s heads and acanthus filled stop-fluting.
It is possible that the painted decoration which echoes the Adams friezes with opposing griffins and other neo-
classical allusions is original.
Headfort is the one great interior designed by Robert Adam in Ireland and the ‘eating-parlour’ has been
magnificently restored.
€10,000 - 15,000
