A George III mahogany writing table


in the manner of Thomas Chippendale (1718-79)Possibly Scottish, circa 1760, the top with a gadroon carved edge, above a blind fretwork frieze with one long drawer, enclosing a sliding top and open compartments, with a stationery side drawer, on blind fretwork hollow square section legs, 93cm wide x 69cm deep x 76cm high, (36 1/2in wide x 27in deep x 29 1/2in high)
|ProvenanceAn incomplete label inside one drawer, dated 1927, explains that the present table was housed at Dunrobin Castle. While the label also references another house which could possibly be either Trentham Hall or Lilleshall Hall, both of which were former family homes of the Sutherlands. Consequently the offered lot probably originally formed part of the interior of Dunrobin Castle, the Scottish estate belonging to the Earls of Sutherland who from 1833 onwards became the Dukes of Sutherland.Sold Phillips, April 1996.Dunrobin Castle and the Sutherland familyLocated in Sutherland, in the Highlands of Scotland, Dunrobin Castle remains the historic family home of the Earls of Sutherland. The Earldom was established in 1235 however the castle itself is believed to have been given its name after Robert, 6th Earl of Sutherland (d. 1427).Following the marriage of Elizabeth, the 8th Earl's daughter, to Adam Gordon, the Earldom and Dunrobin estate passed to the latter in 1512, only four years after the 8th Earl's death. Later Adam Gordon, while temporarily away from the castle, discovered that Dunrobin had been captured in 1518 by Alexander Sutherland, who hailed himself as the only legitimate Earl. The Gordon family, who then subsequently regained Dunrobin, retaliated by beheading Alexander Sutherland before putting the latter's head on a spear surmounting one of the castle's towers.As part of the Jacobite rebellion of 1745, Dunrobin was attacked by Nationalist troops under orders from Charles Edward Stuart, or Bonnie Prince Charlie as he is more widely known, since the Sutherlands ostensibly backed the British. In fact the 17th Earl, who had only recently reverted to calling himself a Sutherland rather than a Gordon, only just escaped capture before sailing to join the Duke of Cumberland's government forces then based in Aberdeen. When the 18th Earl died in 1766 the castle passed to his daughter Elizabeth who went on to marry the statesman George Leveson-Gower, who was later granted the title of 1st Duke of Sutherland.Although the architect Sir Charles Barry rebuilt Dunrobin over the course of the period 1835-50 on behalf of the 2nd Duke of Sutherland, Barry nonetheless retained in the process some older sections such as the 14th century tower as well as the 17th and 18th century extensions. The grandiose castle complex, which happens to be the largest in the Highlands, unites the Scottish baronnial architectural style with the French Renaissance, while the distinctive pyramidal roof above the main entrance appears to have been directly influenced by the work of the French gothic revival architect, Viollet-le-Duc.