PHILIP SPEAKMAN WEBB (1831-1915) FOR MORRIS & CO. UNUSUAL OVAL CENTRE TABLE, CIRCA 1880 walnut, fruitwood inlay

(161cm long, 140.5cm wide, 72.5cm high)

Literature: Whiteway, Michael and Gere, Charlotte Nineteenth Century Design: From Pugin to Mackintosh, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1993, p.100, pl. 108 Parry, Linda, William Morris, London, 1996, p.175 Andrews, John, Arts and Crafts Furniture, Woodbridge, 2005, p.50, pl.45 (similar version illustrated). Lyon & Turnbull, Decorative Arts, April 2004, lot 328 for a similar example in mahogany Note: In 1861 Philip Webb began collaborating with William Morris at Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. (later Morris & Co.). After designing a similar table for Sir Edward Burne-Jones in the 1850's, the firm later produced several related examples for high-profile commissions. These included Old Swan House, Chelsea, designed by Sir Richard Norman Shaw for the connoisseur Wickham Flower, and Great Tangley Manor in Sussex, where Webb carried out extensions in 1885. A similar walnut version of this table is in the collection at Standen, the Arts and Crafts house Webb designed in 1891, now in the care of the National Trust.