Escritoire stand
Category
Furniture
Date
circa 1672 - 1675
Materials
Oak veneered with kingwood, silver mounts, brass
Measurements
73 x 72.8 x 40 cm
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Ham House, Surrey
NT 1140278.2
Summary
A kingwood-veneered stand, English, made between 1672-5, for the escritoire or 'scriptor' NT 1140278.1, in oak veneered with kingwood oysterwork and parquetry, silver mounted. The stand with upper moulding above a frieze drawer fitted with silver handles, backplates and escutcheons. Raised on four legs of spiral-turned kingwood each sitting on an acanthus-carved urn-shaped 'plinth'. The feet foliate and scroll-carved and joined by a veneered rectangular-section stretcher of interlaced curves. -- This escritoire on stand was made for the Duchess of Lauderdale and placed in the White Closet at Ham House. A companion silver mounted escritoire with similar turned legs terminating in vases of acanthus was made for the Duke's Private Closet (NT 1139736.1). Of extremely high quality and fine workmanship, these pieces were almost certainly produced in London, most probably by a French or Dutch craftsman. From 1672-1683 large payments were made by the Lauderdales to the cabinet maker Gerrit Jensen, a cabinet-maker of Dutch origin working in London. The silver mounts may have been supplied by Josias Iback who was paid '£10' as a silversmith in 1673.
Provenance
Described in the 1679 inventory, in the White Closet: "One Scriptore of Prince[s] wood, garnished wth silver". Acquired in 1948 by HM Government when Sir Lyonel, 4th Bt (1854 – 1952) and Sir Cecil Tollemache, 5th Bt (1886 – 1969) presented Ham House to the National Trust, and entrusted to the care of the Victoria & Albert Museum, until 1990, when returned to the care of the National Trust, and to which ownership was transferred in 2002.
References
Rowell 2013: Christopher Rowell (ed.), Ham House, 400 Years of Collecting and Patronage, Yale University Press, New Haven & London 2013, pp.130-131