A William and Mary giltwood and gilt-gesso side table, circa 1700, attributed to the Pelletier famil

A William and Mary giltwood and gilt-gesso side table, circa 1700, attributed to the Pelletier family

the deeply foliate-carved gilt gesso top with hatched ground, with a gadrooned edge, decorated with foliate clasps to the corners on all four sides, the moulded frieze with a beaded and diaper moulding, with a pierced foliate and strapwork frieze, the legs with stylised Ionic capitals and bold gadrooned square collars, of tapering form, decorated with rosettes and bell-flowers, joined by an urn-centred elaborately-scrolled cross stretcher, on gadrooned collared tapered feet, the reverse frieze interestingly with partially-carved moulding, re-gilt

74cm. high, 76cm. wide, 49cm. deep; 2ft. 5 1/8in., 2ft. 5 15/16in., 1ft. 7 5/16in.
Provenance

With Clifford Wright Antiques, London, circa 1998;
Private English Collection, Gloucestershire;
Acquired from the above by the current owner.Literature
The Grosvenor House Handbook, 1998, p. 157.Catalogue note

The design of the present table's legs and stretchers closely relate to a pair of giltwood and lacquer top side tables tables which were supplied to Queen Anne by the Royal Cabinet-Maker Gerrit Jensen, for St. James's Palace in 1704-5 as recorded in the Lord Chamberlain's accounts (PRO LC9 282. No.70 f.79), sold Sotheby's London, 10 July 1998, lot 116.  Although officially recorded as the work of Gerrit Jensen, these tables were almost certainly produced in association with Thomas Pelletier, a leading carver and gilder who himself held a royal warrant and with whom Jensen frequently collaborated. This attribution is documented in Tessa Murdoch `Jean, René and Thomas Pelletier, a Hugenot Family of Carvers and Gilders in England 1682-1726 - Part I and II', Burlington Magazine, November 1997, pp.732-742 and June 1998, pp. 364-374 in which a close study of the carved decoration which is strikingly similar to that of other pieces with which Pelletier is associated, examples of which include a group of six tables with slate tops in the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle original p. 735, fig. 5; a pair of tables with verde antico, tops, also in the Royal Collection, at Buckingham Palace, believed to have been supplied by Pelletier for Hampton Court Palace in 1700, illustrated in Murdoch op. cit., p.737, fig. 7; and a table in the collection of the Dukes of Buccleuch at Boughton House, Northamptonshire, believed to have been supplied to the 1st Duke of Montagu for Montagu House, London, in 1699, illustrated in Murdoch, op.cit, p.734, fig.4.

Further stylistic and circumstantial evidence supporting the present  lot's association with the Pelletier family of carvers and gilders is provided by a set of stools which are recorded in the `The First State Room' at Boughton see Tessa Murdoch, Boughton House, The English Versailles', 1992, p.64, pl. 22. These also feature very similar supports and stretchers to the aforementioned group of tables linked to the Pelletiers.