The table in situ in the library at Chesterfield House, London, in 1922.
Courtesy of Country Life Picture Archive.
THE CHESTERFIELD HOUSE LIBRARY TABLE WITH ROYAL PROVENANCE, English, circa 1750
Width: 7 ft 4 ½ in; 225 cm
Knee height: 1 ft 10 ¾ in; 58 cm
Depth: 4 ft 4 in; 132 cm
Further images
Note: The brass handles and the leather insert are of later date.
The table is fitted with five working drawers, two short and one long to the front and two short and a dummy central drawer to the reverse side. The drawers each end are dummies also.
Chesterfield House, built between 1747 and 1752 for Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield was one of London's great mansions. The house stood on the north side of Curzon Street, and was demolished in 1937 to make room for a block of flats.
Stanhope was an influential British statesman, diplomat and a man of letters. He was known for his great oratorical skills and wit and he lent his support as a sponsor to publication of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language in 1755.
The opening party at Chesterfield house was attended by Horace Walpole. It was said that the mansion rivalled great mansions in France for its beauty. The most important room in it was the library, housing the Earl's important collection of books and his library table.
The table remained in the house until the contents were sold off in 1932 by the then owner, Henry George Charles Lascelles, 6th Earl of Harewood. Lord Harewood had purchased the house in 1919 for himself and his wife, HRH Mary, Princess Royal and Countess Harewood, as their London residence.
Provenance
Commissioned for Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield (1694-1773)
by decent until 1869
Charles Marginac (1827-1891), until 1891
Sir Michael Arthur Bass, 1st Baron Burton (1837-1909),
Harriet Georgina, Dowager Lady Burton, until 1919
Henry George Charles Lascelles, 6th Earl of Harewood (1882-1947)
& Mary, Princess Royal and Countess of Harewood (1897-1965), until 1932.
Sotheby's, 'The Remaining Contents of Chesterfield House', London, 7th April 1932, lot 303.
sold to Mr. Budge according to Sotheby's auctioneers book.
Private collection USA;
Tony Ingrao Inc., New York, USA;
Private collection, USA.
Exhibitions
The Morgan Library, New York, USA, 1968.
Photographed:
Image taken for Lord Burton, 17 August 1886, Historic England Archive.
Literature
Country Life magazine, The Estate Market - Chesterfield House and other Properties, 20th September 1919, p. 374.
Tancred Borenius, The Chesterfield house Collection of Pictures, Country Life magazine, 25th February 1922, pp. 257-259.
H. Avray Tipping, Chesterfield House II Mayfair, A residence of Viscount Lascelles K.G.
Country Life magazine, 4th March 1922, pp. 308-314.
The Estate Market - Future of Chesterfield House, Country Life magazine, London 18th November 1933, p. XXX.
Illustrated:
E. Bereford Chancelor, The Private Palaces of London, no page reference, London, 1908.
Country Life magazine, title page, 25th February 1922.
H. Avray Tipping, Chesterfield House, Mayfair I - A Residence of Viscount Lascelles, Country Life magazine, 25th February 1922, p. 240.
Sotheby's., Catalogue of the Remaining Contents of Chesterfield House, 7. April 1932, p. 40, lot 303.
