Y A PAIR OF GEORGE III SATINWOOD, PURPLE HEART AND ROSEWOOD BANDED OVAL PEMBROKE TABLES, CIRCA 1780

Y A PAIR OF GEORGE III SATINWOOD, PURPLE HEART AND ROSEWOOD BANDED OVAL PEMBROKE TABLESATTRIBUTED TO GILLOWS, CIRCA 1780Each oval top incorporating a pair of hinged leaves, above a frieze drawer and opposing false drawereach 73.5cm high, 53.5cm wide unextended, 90.5cm deep overallProvenance:Nelson RockefellerSold Christies New York, 500 Years of European Decorative Arts. 22nd October 2010, Lot 396, ($60,000).These fine quality tables represent a rare survival as a pair. Occasional tables with drop leaves are said to have been dubbed 'Pembroke' tables after the architect and courtier, Henry Herbert, the 9th Earl of Pembroke. Earlier examples in the popular taste of the earlier eighteenth century tended to have squarer flaps, but by the 1770s Robert Gillow was advising his customers that an oval shape was the height of fashion. The square legs terminating in castors and rich golden satinwood are characteristic of his work, as are certain elements of ornament: Gillows wrote to a customer in 1780 that "plain satin wood card tables [...] will not look well unless they have some banding & stringing of other sorts of wood to set 'em off".There is a comparable example very similar to the present lot at Tatton Park in Cheshire (inventory number NT 1297246), one of the most splendid surviving Gillows interiors.Please note, the measurements for this lot have been revised. The depth of each table overall is 90.5cm and the width of each table (unextended) is 53.5cm, and not as printed in the catalogue.Condition Report: Marks, scratches and abrasions comensurate with age and usePleasing original colour and patina with original surface. Some old chips and splits as expected for age. Some additional dark marks and scratches to the tops as expected for age.Handles and locks all appear original. Keys are present to operate locks. Some minor old repairs and small areas of replacement to banding mainly only to the edge of one drawer front. . Drawer linings are original. Casters are all original and matching. Operating drawer to one side and false drawer front opposing finished equally to operating drawer and with original matching handle. Some very small later tacks securingt he rear edge of the floors of the drawers. No old breaks to legs. The depth of each table overall is 90.5cm and not as printed in the catalogue. Please refer to all additional images for visual reference to condition. Condition Report Disclaimer