Beschreibung:

Y A REGENCY RED-EBONY AND EBONISED CENTRE TABLE IN THE MANNER OF THOMAS HOPE, POSSIBLY ANGLO-INDIAN, CIRCA 1810-15 81cm high, 93.5cm wide, 68cm deep Provenance: Christie's, London, Important English Furniture, 29th November 2001, Lot 182 (£23,500) This rare table is designed in the early 19th Century 'antique' manner with plinth-supported ends, of inverted-lyre scroll form centred by a medallion, both deriving from a library table illustrated in Thomas Hope's Household Furniture and Interior Decoration, London, 1807 and from engravings of the celebrated marble 'tomb of Agrippa'. The combination of exotic timbers and the unusual striking design may point to an intriguing possible Anglo Indian origin. Thomas Hope (1769-1831) was influential as a designer, design reformer and collector. A Dutchman, born in Amsterdam, Hope inherited from his family a tradition of collecting as well as vast wealth from the family bank. He was a collector on a grand scale and also an innovative designer of great genius who helped define what we understand as the Regency style. His extensive Grand Tour travels in Europe, Greece, Turkey and Egypt inspired his interest in antiquities as a source of designs for Regency interiors, furniture and metalwork. He was determined to reform contemporary taste by returning architecture and the arts, including interior design and furniture, to what he conceived as the spirit of classical purity. In 1799 he bought a house designed by Robert Adam in Duchess Street, Portland Place, London, which he remodelled with a series of themed interiors. The colourful interiors of Duchess Street and of Hope's country house, Deepdene in Surrey, played a unique role in the history of collecting, interior design and display. Both were open to select visitors, but his furniture reached an even wider public through his book, Household Furniture and Interior Decoration. Published in 1807, this book introduced the term 'interior decoration' into the English language.