The centre table consists of a rectangular rosewood top with an ebony border inlaid with acanthus and foliate scrolls. The frieze with trailing foliate scrolls and flowerheads, and the shallow frieze drawer with a running band of carved and gilt foliate decoration. It is supported on scrolled brackets above two turned column supports at each end with reeded and beaded capitals and lotus and acanthus leaf bases. A wide stretcher links both ends and rests on four scrolling acanthus feet concealing castors. The lock is stamped ‘GR PATENT’ below a crown.

In 2006, Temple Newsam acquired the writing table which is en suite with this centre table and from the same apartment at 10 Downing Street, also taken over by Earl Grey from Earl Bathurst in 1830 (see Furniture History Society Newsletter, no.165, February 2007, pp.3-5). This important Regency Rosewood and Giltwood Writing Table, attributed to Morel & Hughes and dated 1820-25, was also sold by Thomas Coulborn & Sons.

This centre table is complementary to the writing table, yet with finer enrichments and details. The lower frame is of this centre table is almost identical with that of the writing table and of virtually the same dimensions. It has four ebonised bracket feet supporting the stretcher platform with four slender tapering columns, with giltwood lotus bases and fluted capitals, rich giltwood scrolling brackets supporting the drawer frieze, recessed panels and paterae at the sides. In contrast, the tops of the tables are contrasting. The writing table has a plain drawer-frieze and leather-covered top, and an elegant ormolu gallery of scrolling anthemia whereas the centre table has a frieze drawer with applied giltwood foliate scrolls symmetrically arranged. The top of the centre table has a marquetry border of scrolling palmettes and anthemia, echoing the ormolu gallery of the writing table.

The makers:

The table is attributed to the royal furniture makers, either Morel & Hughes (fl 1805 – 1826) or their successors Morel & Seddon (fl 1826 – post 1832), on the grounds of both style and of similarity with other documented pieces by these firms. It is datable to the late 1820s.

Nicholas Morel appears as a creditor of the Prince of Wales in 1795 and may have been part of the team of Anglo-French craftsmen which worked for Henry Holland and Dominique Daguerre for a number of years. He was joined in business by Robert Hughes soon after 1805 and they were based at 13 Great Marlborough Street, London from 1805 until 1826. Morel’s apparent French background evidently contributed to his work being held in high demand by the fashionable society of the time. They supplied the Prince of Wales (later the Prince Regent) with numerous items for Brighton Pavilion and Carlton House, London; and they supplied other items to the Earl of Mansfield, the Duke of Bedford, the Marquess of Bath and the Duke of Northumberland.

In 1826, Morel’s partnership with Hughes ended and, in 1827, a new one was established with George Seddon III (1796–1857). The partnership came into being almost exclusively to provide the furnishings for George IV’s new rooms at Windsor Castle, although a very few other clients have been identified (see Christopher Gilbert and Geoffrey Beard (eds), The Dictionary of English Furniture makers 1660–1840, and Hugh Roberts, For the King’s Pleasure, esp. p.429, n. 155 and passim). The Windsor Castle commission was worth almost £200,000 to the company. Hugh Roberts’ book For the King’s Pleasure, published by Royal Collection Enterprises in 2001, illustrates many of the pieces made for the commission. The firm used Morel’s address: 13 Great Marlborough Street, London.

It seems possible that either Morel & Hughes or Morel & Seddon supplied furniture to the Marchioness of Hertford who was the owner of Temple Newsam at this time and the Prince’s closest confidante between 1810 and 1820, although no documents have been discovered to confirm this.

In 1830, George’s brother, Thomas III, joined the partnership. After 1833, the name of the business reverted to Seddon & Sons. The firm finally closed in 1868. The company employed designers including the young A.W.N. Pugin. They worked almost exclusively for the crown, particularly at Windsor, but also at other royal residences. Morel & Seddon continued to work for the royal family after George IV’s death, for William IV and Queen Victoria, although Morel’s name disappears from the accounts in 1831.

The table exhibits a number of interesting parallel features with other examples of furniture supplied in 1828 by Nicolas Morel and George Seddon for the Royal apartments at Windsor Castle, Morel having been appointed by George IV after previously working at both Brighton Pavilion and Carlton House, London. The presence of entirely carved and gilded decoration, rather than ormolu, was a feature of items such as a rosewood secretaire cabinet for Room 223; a mahogany dressing-table for Room 236; and an amboyna centre table for Room 243, illustrated in Hugh Roberts, For the King’s Pleasure, p. 327, fig. 408; p. 336, fig. 421; and p. 360, fig. 441 respectively. All featured similar slightly tapering columns as integral to their design, and the scrolled feet of the last are extremely close in execution to those of this table.