Open a larger version of the following image in a popup:
Portrait of Sa Ga Yeath Qua Pieth Tow, by John Verelst, oil on canvas, 1710
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup:
Portrait of Etow Oh Koam, by John Verelst, oil on canvas, 1710
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup:
Portrait of Tee Yee Ho Ga Row, by John Verelst, oil on canvas, 1710
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup:
Portrait of Ho Nee Yeath Taw No Row, by John Verelst, oil on canvas, 1710
A ‘HEADS OF AMERICA’ TABLE , English, circa 1710
Height: 28¾ in; 73 cm
Width: 43 in; 109 cm
Depth: 21 in; 53.5 cm
Width: 43 in; 109 cm
Depth: 21 in; 53.5 cm
4410941
£100,000 +
Further images
A Queen Anne gilt gesso centre table. Note: With restorations to the gesso on the top. The table has been re-gilded. Virtually all tables made in the 18th century were...
A Queen Anne gilt gesso centre table.
Note: With restorations to the gesso on the top. The table has been re-gilded.
Virtually all tables made in the 18th century were designed as side tables. Centre tables are exceptionally rare. In general, all tables and all the other furniture in rooms were placed against the walls. The centre of the room was usually left vacant.
This table marks a pivotal moment in Queen Anne’s reign. In April 1710 a delegation of four Native American chiefs arrived in London for a seven-week official visit and were received by the queen. The entire visit was carefully planned and meticulously orchestrated by the inner circle of the Whig government both to strengthen Britain’s alliance with the Native American tribes and to win public support at home for Queen Anne’s war in North America as part of the War of the Spanish Succession.
The visitors were treated as dignitaries and were driven around London in royal carriages to visit landmarks such as Greenwich Hospital, the Tower of London and Woolwich Arsenal, where they were given cannon salutes. They attracted enormous public attention, and a performance of Macbeth at the Theatre Royal at which the four chiefs were guests of honour had to be halted because the audience became so rowdy. It resumed only after the chiefs had left their box to sit on the stage in full public view for the remainder of the play.
Also known as the ‘four Mohawk kings’, the chiefs’ names were Sa Ga Yeath Qua Pieth Tow (Peter Brant), Ho Nee Yeath Taw No Row (John of Canajoharie), Etow Oh Koam (Nicholas), and Tee Yee Ho Ga Row (Hendrick Tejonihokarawa).
The queen commissioned official portraits of the four visitors, poems were written about them and for a short time furniture was adorned with ‘the Heads of America’. The distinctly different faces on each corner of this table are modelled after the portraits of the four chiefs.
It is unlikely that many such pieces were made, and of those very few have survived. Examples like this table are therefore extremely rare. Of those, two can be traced back to their original owners, both members of the inner circle of the Whig government, known as the Junto: William Cavendish, 3rd Duke of Devonshire, who was Lieutenant General for Ireland, and James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos, Paymaster General during Queen Anne’s reign. A gesso table with four Indian mask knees is today in the collection of the Dukes of Devonshire, and a suite of seat furniture now at Houghton Hall, Norfolk, was originally commissioned for James Brydges for Canons, Middlesex.
By the summer of 1710, however, the Queen had tired of the Whigs’ policies. She gradually replaced them with Tories who pushed for the end of the war, culminating in the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713.
Provenance
Private collection, USA.
