Description

A Regency occasional table in goncalo alves, attributed to Marsh and Tatham, inlayed with decorative brass to the top and sides.

Marsh & Tatham were celebrated as ‘Upholders’ to George, Prince of Wales (later George IV) and additionally supplied furniture for Carlton House, London; they were also frequented by a number of significant aristocratic patrons. In 1795, William Marsh (f. 1774–85), who had supplied furniture for the Brighton Pavilion, and George Elward, were joined by Thomas Tatham (d. 1818), the elder brother of C.H. Tatham, and the firm became Elward, Marsh & Tatham (from 1803 known as Marsh & Tatham). The arrival of Thomas Tatham was significant for the firm because between 1795 and 1796, Henry Holland, the Prince of Wales’s architect, had lost through death or illness the assistance of three of his principal assistants, Jagger, Trécourt and Daguerre.

Holland thus increasingly turned towards Elward, Marsh & Tatham for the refurbishment of Carlton House, Brighton Pavilion and Southill, Bedfordshire. C.H. Tatham, in addition to providing inspiration for furniture made by the firm through his neo-classical drawings, was also largely instrumental in gaining the firm commissions; bills in the Castle Howard archive show that C.H. Tatham engaged Marsh & Tatham there on at least two separate occasions, from September 1801 to July 1802 ?for work on the Gallery and Museum, and from 1811 to 1812 for work on the North Gallery and Octagon. The work was collaborative between designer and cabinet-maker, the latter supplied pelmets, cornices and curtains executed in gold with black scroll details, the anthemion at each corner of the pelmet was identical in form and ornament to Tatham’s drawing of an ‘antique ornament used upon the covers of urns, sarcophagi… perfect – of the finest sculpture in Greek marble.

Size; 41 cm deep x 46 wide x 70 high.

Price; £4,200

Stock number; 5423