Adam's Country House Collections Day II - 10th October 2023

91 411 EARLY 19TH CENTURY ‘Mediterranean Coastal Scene With Figures by Beached Boats at Sunset’ Oil on canvas, 46.5 x 56cm € 800 - 1,200 412 A GEORGE III INLAID AND PAINTED SATINWOOD PEMBROKE TABLE, ATTRIBUTED TO SEDDON, SONS & SHACKLETON the oval double drop leaf top painted with a band of trailing flowers and foliage within bands of rosewood, with single frieze drawer, raised on turned fluted legs with castors. 81cm deep, 71.5cm high, 101cm wide (open) € 3,000 - 5,000 The ornate design adorning this table firmly establishes its place within the limited catalog of works produced by the partnership of Seddon, Sons, and Shackleton, which spanned from 1790 to 1798. George Seddon’s cabinet-making enterprise, initiated in the early 1750s, was nothing short of prolific. In 1768, a note in the Gen - tleman’s Magazine reported a fire at Mr. Seddon’s premises, one of London’s preeminent cabinet-makers, resulting in damages amounting to £20,000. Another devastating fire in 1783 consumed property worth a staggering £100,000. By 1786, a German novelist, Sophie von La Roche, recorded in her travel journal that the firm boast - ed a workforce of over 400 apprentices, including glass-grinders, bronze-casters, carvers, gilders, painters, drapers, and uphol- sterers, all laboring at the Aldersgate Street location. Examina- tion of the firm’s printed bill-heads reveals the official entry of Thomas and George, the sons, into the company. The renowned furniture commission placed by D. Tupper for Hauteville House, Guern- sey, in 1790, indicates that by June of that year, Thomas Shack- leton, who had married the eldest daughter, was invited to join the firm. This collaboration persisted until the retirement of the father in 1798, at which point the sons assumed control of the busi- ness. The expansive Hauteville commission, now scattered, includes a satinwood card-table adorned with the same peacock feath- er border on a cream background (see C. Gilbert, ‘Seddon, Sons & Shackleton,’ Furniture History, 1997, p. 6, fig. 3). Additionally, the set of eighteen shield-back chairs incorporates intricate floral chains. Three of these chairs are currently housed in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and can be viewed in M. Tomlin’s Catalogue of Adam Period Furniture, 1981, p. 133, cat. P/7. The firm also supplied furniture to Richard Hall Clarke at Bridwell House, for which some invoices still exist. Among the pieces is a Pembroke table (accom- panied by a pair of matching card tables) featuring identical handles and floral chains bordering the top, mirroring the leg decoration seen on this example. This suite remained at Bridwell until 1992 when it was auctioned by Sotheby’s, London, on July 9, 1993, as lot 173. The final known account attributed to the firm dates back to 1799 and pertains to Lord Deerhurst. This substantial commission included an en- try for ‘A Satinwood Pembroke Table with Richly Japaned and Highly Varnished Border, priced at £9,’ underscoring the firm’s penchant for painted satinwood furniture.