Beschreibung:

A pair of mahogany and tulipwood crossbanded dining room pedestals, circa 1770, each with a rectangular top above two crossbanded panels, flanked by carved paterae above stop-fluted pilasters, on a plinth base, the first pedestal with a frieze drawer above a door opening to a tambour fronted cupboard and a deep drawer, the other with a hinged door opening to a later converted interior containing two shelves, (formerly with a sheet metal lining attached to the interior) each 95cm high, 51cm wide, 53.5cm deep Country houses in the 18th century normally had State Rooms such as the Drawing Room, Library and Dining Room at the centre and the kitchens and domestic quarters in the wings. The distance of the kitchens from the Dining Room necessitated the design of furniture which not only fitted in with the architecture and decorative detail of the room, but was also functional. One of the present pair of pedestals originally had a metal-lined interior with tiers of wooden slats to support either plates or hot food kept warm by a brazier below, the other has a tambour-fronted chamber pot compartment with a drawer below which may have contained a tray for ice. Thomas Chippendale furnished David GarrickÆs dining parlour with æ2 mahogany pedestals, one fitted as a plate warmer, the other with water divisions in the Top partÆ and to stand between them æMahogany Sideboard Table with Term FeetÆ. William Gates, the Royal Cabinet-maker supplied the Prince of Wales in 1780 for the then QueenÆs House, now Buckingham Palace, a pair of æfine mahogany urns on square pedestalsààthe inside of one lined with tin, with wooden racks to hold silver plates vertically, and a large brazier in an iron grid frame fixed to the bottom to warm the plates, and the other pedestal with a lead-lined cistern for iced waterÆ.