A GEORGE II OCTAGONAL PADOUK TRIPOD TABLE ATTRIBUTED TO WILLIAM MASTERS

A rare mid 18th century Chippendale period padouk tripod table attributed to William Masters, having an octagonal tip-up top with fine cross banding and a moulded edge, on a turned column with vase shaped knop; on hipped double cabriole legs joined by a concave sided platform and terminating in pointed pad feet with brass castors.
Note: This tripod table of extraordinary design belonging to a very small group of tables with virtually identical bases. So far only a further three tables with this unusual base have come to light. Two are documented pieces by William Masters made for the Duke of Atholl at Blair Castle in Perthshire: one of these is a tea table with circular gallery top , and the other is a supper table with octagonal top. The undocumented third table has a plain circular top and was advertised by Edwin H. Herzog in the Connoisseur magazine in May 1976. All three are made of commonly used mahogany, whilst the current example is made of padouk wood, a rarer and more costly timber.

Literature: Arthur Oswald, Blair Castle Perthshire III, Country Life, 18 November 1949, pp. 1506-10.
Anthony Coleridge, Chippendale Furniture, 1968, illus. 398.
Connoisseur, May 1976, advertisement with Edwin H. Herzog, London.
Geoffrey Beard and Christopher Gilbert, The Dictionary of English Furniture Makers 1660-1840, London 1986, p. 585.
Illustrated:
F.Lewis Hinckley, A Directory of Antique Furniture, 1953, p. 171, illus. 526.