Sidetable, painted white, supported by carved dogs at the front. A carved mask of Diana on the front. Marble top.

Carved pinewood side-table painted white with a marble top on a solid wooden plinth. Rectangular jutting corners in front and similar projecting corners at the back. The rear legs in the form of massive rectangular symmetrical scrolls. The front legs in the form of seated dogs (or foxes) facing outwards at each end. Openwork decoration consisting of pairs of convergent acanthus leaf sprays and a festoon of oak leaves. Pendant acorns form the top above a scallop shell standing vertically on the plinth. In front an openwork arrangement of intertwining festoon of oak leaves and acorns on either side of a head of Diana (missing her crescent moon) facing frontwards above a scallop shell placed vertically. Moulded wood top rail supporting a top of white marble streaked and mottled with grey, shaped at the edge.

Given by Mr E. E. Cook, Bath

Probably made in the London workshops of Benjamin Goodison (about 1700-1767)
Made for Sir Jacob Bouverie (1694-1761), Longford Castle, Wiltshire

A number of tables with fox supporters are known in private collections. Another was illustrated in Frank Lumb: an appreciation from his many friends (privately printed, October 1993, perhaps in conjunction with the Harrogate Antiques Fair), p. 26. It was purchased in Scarborough from a local antique dealer and subsequently sold at the Grosvenor House Fair. A pair of smaller pier tables with foxes is at Firle Place, Sussex and a pair are at Stourhead, Wiltshire, a property of the National Trust. That pair have slabs of Rosso di Verona marble. In the 1742 inventory they were listed in the Picture Room, and in an 1838 inventory in the Dining Room. Images are available online at the National Trust website (inv. no. NT 731596). They are discussed in Dudley Dodd, 'The 1742 Inventory of Stourhead: Contemplating a Transient House', Furniture History, vol. LIII, pp. 51-90. illustrated as fig. 11, p. 63.

Object Type
The table was possibly made for the Palladian entrance hall of Longford Castle.

Design
This table support is carved and painted to imitate sculpture in marble. The waterleaf and bead and reel mouldings at top and base suggest that the table was intended for an interior with a strong architectural character.The top of grey-veined marble may have matched the marble pavement on the floor of the entrance hall.

People
This table was probably supplied by the cabinet-maker Benjamin Goodison, who was paid over œ400 by Sir Jacob Bouverie for furniture for Longford Castle in 1740. The table is similar in its bold architectural form to furniture designed by the architect William Kent, for whom Benjamin Goodison often worked. There are no payments to Kent in the archives at Longford, which suggests that on this occasion Goodison may have been working to the directions of his patron.

W.3:1, 2-1953