“It wasn’t stamped, there were condition problems and, apart from coming from a farmhouse south of Bristol, had no particular provenance,” said Bromell.
“But it did have marked similarities to a table featured in Susan Weber Soros’ book The Secular Furniture of E.W. Godwin.”
He also noted that a similar table in the ‘Anglo- Japanese taste’ had been recorded as having been in the Gothic Revival mansion Tyntesfield, near Bristol, now owned by the National Trust.
This well-known form was much copied even in Godwin’s lifetime (he often complained of plagiarism) and this table (with a slightly warping top and a broken leg) was catalogued simply as an Anglo-Japanese coffee table with a reference to Godwin. Given an estimate of £500-1000, it was left to the market to decide its value.
The vendor would have been happy with £30 and Bromwell had hopes of high four-figures but the table sold at £14,000 to the London trade.
