A PAIR OF GEORGE II CARVED PINE EAGLE CONSOLE TABLES IN THE MANNER OF FRANCIS BRODIE, CIRCA 1740 Each with banded marble top each 86cm high, 101cm wide, 60cm deep The form of 'Jupiter' eagle console table, appropriate for a 'Roman' banqueting hall, recalls Ovid's Metamorphoses of the history of the shepherd Ganymede who was borne aloft by an eagle to serve as Jupiter's cup-bearer at the banquet of the Gods. The pattern may have been invented by Lord Burlington's protégé, the artist architect William Kent (d. 1748), who provided Roman eagles in his illustrations to Alexander Pope's 1725 translation of Homer's Odyssey. The Edinburgh cabinet-maker Francis Brodie featured a related eagle table on his trade sheet, published in 1739 (F. Bamford, Dictionary of Edinburgh Furniture-Makers, Leeds, 1983, pl. 24a).For a closely related pair of console tables of the period, see Christie's, London, Important English Furniture including the Mermaid House Collection, 12th November 1998, Lot 80 - The Property of a Gentleman (£150,000). Parallels can also be drawn between the form of these tables and 'The Bellinter Tables' supplied to John Preston M.P. for the Hall at Bellinter House, County Meath in circa 1740, see Christie's, London, Important English Furniture, 17th April 1997, Lot 50 - The Property of a Gentleman (£540,000). A related pair of tables sold in these rooms, 28th March 2018, Lot 70 (£65,000 plus premium). A single console table of related form and attributed to Francis Brodie can be seen on the website of Ronald Phillips, London.