Standing livery cupboard
Category
Furniture
Date
circa 1640
Materials
Oak
Measurements
98 x 125 cm
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire
NT 1127708
Summary
An oak standing livery cupboard, or court cupboard, English, early to mid-17th century, with later modifications and lacking the base boards and feet, the frieze carved with foliate scrolls to the frieze between applied pyramidal bosses, above a cupboard enclosed by a pair of sunken-paneled doors, each carved with a large flower of four petals, either side of a fixed panel with applied arcade centred by a tree of one leaf, between leaf-carved and gadrooned bulbous columns, above a gadrooned drawer and further columns, the rear columns plain. -- Much of the 16th and 17th century oak at Hardwick Hall, the indigenous pieces aside, was probably purchased by the 6th Duke in the 19th century to enhance the Elizabethan feel of the property, much as his contemporary, Charles Winn of Nostell Priory, is known to have done (Westgarth, Raikes). The 6th Duke is recorded, for instance, as having bought 'oak Arm chairs' in 1846.
Provenance
By descent until, following the death of Edward William Spencer Cavendish, 10th Duke of Devonshire (1895 - 1950), Hardwick Hall and its contents were accepted by HM Treasury in part payment of death duties and transferred to the National Trust, in 1959.
References
Westgarth 2009, M. Westgarth, 'A Biographical Register of Nineteenth Century Antique and Curiosity Dealers', Regional Furniture XXIII (2009), 1 - 205 Raikes, 2003: S.Raikes. ““A cultivated eye for the antique”: Charles Winn and the enrichment of Nostell Priory in the nineteenth century.” Apollo 157.494 (2003): pp.3-8.