Charlie Thomas
Director
Collections Sale / THE GLADSTONE TABLE A VICTORIAN SPECIMEN MARBLE PEDESTAL TABLE Probably attributable to John Woodley, Royal Marble Works of St Marychurch, Torquay, Devon
THE PROFESSOR GORDON WALKDEN COLLECTION OF FOSSILS AND MINERALS
Lot 103
TP
THE GLADSTONE TABLE: A VICTORIAN SPECIMEN MARBLE PEDESTAL TABLE
Probably attributable to John Woodley, Royal Marble Works of St Marychurch, Torquay, Devon
28 June 2022, 10:00 BST
London, Knightsbridge£5,000 - £8,000
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THE GLADSTONE TABLE: A VICTORIAN SPECIMEN MARBLE PEDESTAL TABLE
Probably attributable to John Woodley, Royal Marble Works of St Marychurch, Torquay, Devon
The circular top centred by stalactite flowstone of the Kents Cavern type and eight radially arranged and unusually large plaquettes of various Devon marbles, with a black marble rim, raised on a veined Petit Tor marble octagonal baluster support and corresponding base, 60cm wide x 60cm deep x 72cm high, (23 1/2in wide x 23 1/2in deep x 28in high)
The circular top centred by stalactite flowstone of the Kents Cavern type and eight radially arranged and unusually large plaquettes of various Devon marbles, with a black marble rim, raised on a veined Petit Tor marble octagonal baluster support and corresponding base, 60cm wide x 60cm deep x 72cm high, (23 1/2in wide x 23 1/2in deep x 28in high)
Footnotes
This fascinating 'Patriotic' specimen marble table stands apart from two others from the original set of three at Fasque because it is distinctly likely the central specimen was excavated by the future Prime Minister William Gladstone.
It was noted in his diaries that, on 19th September 1832 whilst on a 'gap' and staying with his mother and father in Torquay, he visited 'Kent's Cavern' where he 'spent some hours...in digging and hammering', later complaining that it was already much knocked about and that no good stalactites remained. More significantly, he took home some specimens of stalactite which the following day he spent time 'scrubbing and gumming'. The fact that this table was central in the hall at Fasque alludes to the possibility it was of familial importance, incorporating the work of William Gladstone himself.
Provenance: Ex Fasque, Kincardineshire.
Christies, The Scottish Seat of the Gladstones, 7th May 2008, lot 174.
Literature: 1851 Fasque Inventory under Entrance Hall, 'Marble Table and Stand, £5.0.0'
M.R.D Foot(ed), The Gladstone Diaries, pub. Oxford University Press, 1968.
Geological Notes: The specimens within the top are; Stromatoporoid (Strom) limestone, Coral bearing marble with branching rugose forms, Grey reef rock, Coral/Strom with with Renalcis 'shadows' (Fossil Petittor), Thamnopora corals from Bradley Wood, Newton Abbott (Featherstone), veined pink/yellow petitor, part dolomitised coral/strom, red laminated reef mud (Petit Tor) and local Pleistocene flowstone.