Table
1700-1740 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Table with an octagonal top, with one pair of opposite sides longer than the other sides. Eight cabriole legs at the corners which have two sided knees, grooved vertically at the edges, above squared horizontal knobs, and terminate in volute feet. Plain freize. The table top has various inscriptions written in ink or scratched into its surface
Object details
| Category | |
| Object type | |
| Parts | This object consists of 2 parts.
|
| Materials and techniques | carved walnut |
| Brief description | Carved walnut table, 1700-1740, features graffiti and was possibly used as a 'schoolroom' table at Barton Hall, Suffolk |
| Physical description | Table with an octagonal top, with one pair of opposite sides longer than the other sides. Eight cabriole legs at the corners which have two sided knees, grooved vertically at the edges, above squared horizontal knobs, and terminate in volute feet. Plain freize. The table top has various inscriptions written in ink or scratched into its surface |
| Dimensions |
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| Marks and inscriptions | 'SMUT'
'DAMN'
'HANG VERSES'
'BY JOVE'
'THE DEVIL TAKE ALGE'(BRA)
'BUNBURY' (written in white chalk cursive script)
'C. J. F. BUNBURY' 'C J F B BUNBURY OF BOTANY'
'R. H. BUNBURY NOVEMGER 26'
'PRICILLA RAY'
'MARIANNE HASTED'
'ELIZA HEIGHAM' (Apart from names or initials of males and females, the inscriptions include:
1) words and verses in Latin and Greek, and the names of Latin and Greek authors;
2) Geometrical figures, some drawn with compasses;
3) A reference to Algebra;
4) Sketches of a tortoise, insect and other natural history subjects.) |
| Gallery label | TABLE
ENGLISH: about 1725
Walnut.
This table was used in the schoolroom at Barton Hall, Suffolk, by the Bunbury family in the early 19th century.
Bought with the aid of a grant from the National Art-Collections Fund.
Museum No. W.101-1937(1976) |
| Credit line | Purchased with Art Fund support |
| Object history | The table top is covered in graffiti of a kind that suggests it was used in a school, or perhaps a family school room. Some of the scripts look 18th-century, so it may have served this purpose from the start. From the paper catalogue: The curriculum suggests that the table was used in a boy's school. But it is reasonable to suppose that a table of such elegance was made for and used in a private house, where it was used as a 'schoolroom' or 'study' table by a family of boys. That this house was Barton Hall, Suffolk, seems to be shown by the three following inscriptions: 1. 'BUNBURY': an owners mark 2. 'C. J. F. Bunbury': rare triple initials found in this family pedigree 3. 'R. H. Bunbury'/'Novemger 26' with a year likely to be '1826' The father of these two boys, Lieut. General Sir Henry E. Edward Bunbury, K. C. B., 7th Baronet (succeeded 1821) of Barton Hall, Mildenhall Suffolk, who bwas born 4th May 1778, and died 13th April 1860, was the second son of the amateur artist and caricaturist Henry William Bunbury (1750-1811), friend of Garrick, Goldsmith and Reynolds. |
| Place depicted | |
| Associations | |
| Bibliographic reference | For the form of the legs compare:
P. Macquoid and R. Edwards, Dictionary of English Furniture. Vol. III, 1927, p.211, fig.22
Ibid. Vol. III, p.121, fig. 1 (sideboard)
And for feet:
Ibid. Vol. I, fig.43 and 45 (tall back chairs)
Ibid. Vol. III, p.266, fig. 66 (stools)
Ibid. Vol. III, p.168, fig. 31-32 (stools)
Ibid. Vol. III, p.187, fig. 8 (card-table)
For similar dressing table legs but lacking the squared knob, see:
R. W. Symonds, English Furniture, 1929, fig.58 (Percival D. G. Griffiths Collection)
For comparable feet:
Ibid. figs. 104-105 (stools)
Ibid. fig. 110 (stools) |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | W.101:2-1937 |
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| Record created | August 19, 2003 |
| Record URL |
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