A CARVED OAK OTTOMAN STOOLIN THE ANTIQUARIAN TASTE, 19TH CENTURY42cm high, 104cm wide, 61cm deep overall Provenance: The collection of Standish Robert Vereker, 7th Viscount Gort (1888- 1975) at Hamsterley Hall, Co. DurhamInherited by The Hon. Catherine Mary 'Kate' Wass, OBE (1942-2021) upon the death of her great-uncle, the 7th Viscount Gort, in 1975Illustrated:C. Hussey, 'Hamsterley Hall, Durham: The Seat of the Hon. S.R. Vereker, M.C.', Country Life, 21 October 1939, p. 422, fig. 11 This 19th century ottoman stool was in the collection of the 7th Viscount Gort, photographed in 1939 by Country Life in one of the bedrooms at Hamsterley Hall. It is almost certainly inspired by Italian baroque furniture of the 17th century. The reclining male figures relate to a design for a side table by Fillipo Passarini, published in Nuove inventioni d'ornamenti (1698) (E. Colle, Il mobile barocco in Italia. Arredi e decorazioni d'interni dal 1600 al 1738, Milan, 2000, p. 86), and a carved giltwood side table with similar figures, dating to the end of the 17th century, is in the Galleria Colonna, Rome (A. Gonzalez-Palacios, Il Tempio del Gusto: Le arti decorative in Italia fra classicismi e Barocco, Vicenza, 2000, vol. II, pl. 125).