Table used by Cabinet fetches 41,800 pounds

A REGENCY rosewood dining- room table, said to have been used for Cabinet meetings at 10 Downing Street, sold for pounds 41,800 yesterday when Christie's began auctioning the contents of Pitchford Hall, an Elizabethan manor house near Shrewsbury.

David Mellor, when Secretary of State for National Heritage, ruled against saving the house for the nation - despite the recommendations of English Heritage, the National Heritage Memorial Fund and the National Trust. When the sale of contents ends today it is expected it will have raised more than pounds 1m.

The Cabinet table went to Partridge, the fine art dealers. Despite its historical interest its upper estimate was just pounds 8,000. It was once owned by Gladstone, as a plaque in the centre records. Lord Rosebery, one of two prime ministers with which Pitchford is associated, received it as a gift.

The sale included three pieces that were at 10 Downing Street during Lord Rosebery's term in office. An early Victorian mahogany partner's desk, an armchair and a bronze bust of him sold for pounds 6,050, pounds 880 and pounds 705 respectively.

A pair of Regency mahogany terrestrial and celestial globes on delicate stands with tapering legs went to a telephone bidder for pounds 48,600; a Regency mahogany dining-table went to Partridge for pounds 46,200. Both pieces more than doubled estimates. A pair of Regency mahogany chairs (estimate pounds 10,000- pounds 15,000) fetched pounds 24,200.

The sale of the 40-room Grade I listed building, which had been owned by the same family for 500 years, takes place later.