Explore Collections
You are here:
CollectionsOnline
/
Pembroke table, English, unknown maker, probably designed by John Soane, c.1821
Browse
Pembroke table, XF179, English, unknown maker, probably designed by John Soane, c.1821, mahogany and brass.©Sir John Soane's Museum, London. Photograph: Hugh Kelly.
Pembroke table, English, unknown maker, probably designed by John Soane, c.1821
Mahogany with brass fittings
Height: 74cm
Width (central section): 30.5cm
Width (flaps): 20.5cm
Depth (table top): 65cm
Depth (base): 68cm
Width (central section): 30.5cm
Width (flaps): 20.5cm
Depth (table top): 65cm
Depth (base): 68cm
Museum number: XF179
On display: Apollo Recess
All spaces are in No. 13 Lincoln's Inn Fields unless identified as in No. 12, Soane's first house.
For tours https://www.soane.org/your-visit
Curatorial note
With two turned and moulded fixed legs on castors; two gate legs on castors and two semi-circular drop leaves, built around an open box or folio section with reeded edges; there is a small drawer above the folio section, with a small circular brass knob; the table cannot be fully drawn out from its niche but when the flaps are raised they form a circle with the fixed central section.
This idiosyncratic small table pulls out from a recess in the base of the pedestal supporting the full-size cast of the Apollo Belvedere, and must have been made when the Apollo was moved from the east side of the Dome area to its current position and put on its circular plaster base, painted in imitation of marble, in around 1821. In Soane’s time the ‘Apollo Recess’ served as a small library. The table was therefore presumably often in use as Soane consulted the books stored there.1
1 Bolton, 1923
This idiosyncratic small table pulls out from a recess in the base of the pedestal supporting the full-size cast of the Apollo Belvedere, and must have been made when the Apollo was moved from the east side of the Dome area to its current position and put on its circular plaster base, painted in imitation of marble, in around 1821. In Soane’s time the ‘Apollo Recess’ served as a small library. The table was therefore presumably often in use as Soane consulted the books stored there.1
1 Bolton, 1923
Soane collections online is being continually updated. If you wish to find out more or if you have any further information about this object please contact us: worksofart@soane.org.uk