A CARVED GILTWOOD CONSOLE TABLEPOSSIBLY IRISH, IN THE KENTIAN MANNER, PROBABLY FIRST HALF 19TH CENTURY 91cm high, 155cm wide, 46cm deepProvenance: Possibly supplied or acquired by John Davenport (1765-1848) for Westwood, near Leek.John Davenport II who inherited Westwood and then sold the estate acquiring Foxley in Herefordshire.The Rev. George Horatio Davenport. Sold by Russell Baldwin & Bright, The Contents of Foxley, 1948. Acquired by Miss Davenport for Compton Bassett House. Thence removed to The Thatch, Compton Bassett.Thence by descent to the vendor.John Davenport was largely a self-made man and although he had no family background in the pottery business he founded an internationally renowned business bearing his name. John Davenport began potting in 1785, first as a workman, and later as a partner with Thomas Wolfe of Stoke. In 1794 he acquired his own pottery at Longport for the manufacturing earthenware. In 1830 he retired, and two of his sons Henry and William ran the business until 1835, when Henry died. The firm was then known as William Davenport and Company. William died in 1869, and his two sons took over the direction of the business, which remained in the family until 1887.John Davenport also founded a glass works and stood as a Member of Parliament. He purchased the Westwood Estate, near Leek from the Hon. William Grey of Duffryn in 1813 as his country estate.John Davenport's son John Davenport II (born 1799) was not active in the family pottery business. He was educated at Worcester College, Oxford and called to the Bar in 1828. Davenport married Charlotte, daughter of George Coltman of Hagnaby Priory in Lincolnshire. After his father's death in 1848 he went to live at his father's country estate, Westwood, near Leek but left in 1855 when he purchased the Foxley estate in Herefordshire, formerly the home of the writer and commentator Uvedale Price. John Davenport II had six children; the eldest was John Coltman Davenport who died in 1858, the estate then passing to George Horatio Davenport in 1862. George was briefly involved in the family pottery business during its closing years.Foxley was used by the American Army during World War II and was demolished in 1948. The above lot was entered into the 1948 contents sale but it is not clear if Miss Davenport purchased the table at the sale, family history suggests that it may have been withdrawn prior to sale and gifted to her. The 1948 Foxley Dispersal sale was 'commissioned' by Ralph Tichborne Hinckes who was son of the Rev George Horatio Davenport who was the current vendors maternal grand father.