M A L L E T T LO N D O N
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› A RARE PAIR OF CAST IRON AND MARBLE TOP CONSOLE TABLES A highly unusual pair of polished iron mid 19th century rococo revival side tables, each having a mask in the centre of the frieze supported by scrolls and classical motif. The tables stand on boldly modelled ‘C’ and ‘S’ scroll legs with replaced serpentine white marble tops. Both tables are signed ‘James Yates, Rotherham’ and bear the design registration mark for 1842. England, 1842 Height: 84cm/33in Width: 154cm/60½in Depth: 65cm/25½in
James Yates (d. 1881) trained as a model maker at the Walker family foundry before taking over the business in 1823 with Charles Samuel Roberts Sandford, renaming themselves the New Foundry in Rotherham. During the following years the foundry expanded significantly, acquiring a new forge in 1831 for the specific manufacture of large wrought iron products, along with a new premises known as the Phoenix Works. In 1838, the partnership then split and Yates took over the Phoenix Works and the original foundry in Rotherham, before entering partnership again in 1846 with George Haywood and John Drabble, forming Yates Haywood & Co. A successful venture, the company went on to feature at the Great Exhibition at Hyde Park in 1851.
F3B0316
LITERATURE
Georg Himmelheber, Cast-Iron Furniture and All Other Forms of Iron Furniture, London, 1996, plate 228.
The 1830’s and 1840’s were decades of rapid expansion for the iron industry. The development of the rail network allowed the iron foundries to meet a growing demand for domestic ware and as such, the use of finely cast more elaborate designs, increased at the same time. Mr. John Guest, a local Rotherham historian described the business as producing “a vast range of articles from the most elegant design and exquisite finish... ornamental tables in the richest style of the French and Italian taste with festoons of flowers and scrollwork”. A console table of similar form by Yates Haywood & Co., illustrated in Georg Himmelheber’s book Cast-Iron Furniture, features clear similarities in the use of rococo revival elements, for example the bold use of scrollwork on the tops of the legs, acanthus leaf motif and a central cartouche, or classical masks visible on the Mallett pair, at the centre of the frieze.
A console table of similar form by Yates Haywood & Co
N E W YO R K
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