This George II Irish side table made £185,000 at hammer at Drewatts.
A beautiful George II Irish mahogany side table sold for a hammer price of £185,000 at Drewatts Donnington Priory salerooms near Newbury in Berkshire today. Estimated at just £8,000-12,000 the table is entirely original and is a very fine example of a top quality circa 1750 Irish piece. It is understood that the table was bought by the Irish antique trade and that it will come back to Ireland.
The rectangular top has a gadrooned edge above a profusely carved and pierced frieze centred by a lion mask flanked by swags of oak branches and flowerheads. The side friezes are centred by a carved shell, a swag beneath, on cabriole legs with acanthus carved terminals, on stylised lion paw feet. It came from Townley Hall in Co. Louth built in 1799 for the Townley Balfour family. It is regarded as a masterpiece in the classical style of Francis Johnston, the foremost Irish architect of his day.
The poet laureate Sir John Betjeman, in a survey of the work of Francis Johnson wrote: ‘I have seen many Irish houses, but I know none at once so dignified, so restrained and so original as Francis Johnston’s Townley Hall’ .