C. Gilbert & T. Murdoch, John Channon and Brass-Inlaid Furniture: 1730-1760 (London, 1993), fig. 11
A. Coleridge, ‘John Cobb’s ‘Handkerchief’ Table’, Furniture History Society Newsletter (August 2007), p. 1
The segmented top with ovolo-moulded edges and re-entrant corners rotating on tapering legs ending in pad feet
A rare collector’s piece, an example formerly in the Peggy and David Rockefeller Collection sold Christie’s, New York, 9th May 2018, lot 279 for $22,500. Another example with Avon Antiques sold Christie’s, London, 21st May 2009, lot 240 for £16,250.
This a particularly refined example of great original colour and patina.
The ovolo-moulded top with re-entrant corners, popularly known as ‘envelope’ or ‘handkerchief' form, features on a harlequin corner-table pattern in the 1730s trade-sheet issued by the Holborn cabinet-maker Thomas Potter (Gilbert & Murdoch, 1993). Its form was later adopted by George William, 6th Earl of Coventry (1722-1809) when he commissioned a table with a rotating top with leaves invoiced for by John Cobb on 3rd July 1772 as ‘an inlaide Handkerchief table…6 6s’.