ATTRIBUTED TO WILLIAM TROTTER, CIRCA 1830

William Trotter supplied furnishings to some of his native Scotland's most important houses and institutions including: numerous apartments in the Palace of Holyroodhouse; Dumfries House; Mount Stuart and Edinburgh's Parliament House. Trotter worked with various partners in Princes Street until his death in 1833. The management of his shop continued under the title of 'Heirs of Wm Trotter' and later under the name of William's son, Charles, until it closed in 1852.
The table displays a number of features associated with trotter, most notably the reeded frieze to the table top. A similar feature is seen on a number of pieces supplied by Trotter in 1814 to George Home for Paxton House, Berwickshire, including a pair of rosewood side tables with jasper tops, a `circular rosewood frame for a Lava top', and a pair or rosewood `eliptic' card tables (F. Bamford, A Dictionary of Edinburgh Furniture Makers, Leeds, 1983, pls. 54B, 57 and 61. The same reeding featured on a library table made by Trotter in around 1822 (in the Signet Library, Edinburgh) (Bamford op. cit., pl., 69), while the triangular, spreading pedestal featured on a circular rosewood games table from Yester House, East Lothian, sold Christie's, London, 16 January 2007, lot 315, (£9,600 including premium)(and illustrated in Bamford op. cit., pl. 72A). Although Trotter's known work appears to be almost entirely of mahogany and rosewood, several items, tables in particular, with burr-elm or other highly figured tops, have been attributed to him.