Bureau cabinet
John Pardoe (fl.1717 - 1748)
Category
Furniture
Date
Mar 1717
Materials
Walnut veneer, deal, oak, mirror glass, brass, damask
Measurements
213.5 x 102 x 58 cm
Place of origin
London
Order this imageCollection
Erddig, Wrexham
NT 1147180
Summary
A walnut-veneered bureau cabinet, or bureau bookcase, English, almost certainly supplied by John Pardoe (fl. 1717 - 1748) in 1717. The cabinet bookcase with moulded cornice and coved frieze above a pair of doors each inset with a plate of silvered glass with beveled edge and shaped towards the top, within a beaded surround and above a candle-slide. The interior all of oak, and with two adjustable shelves and eight pigeonholes, all with arched fascias. The bureau with double-bead mouldings and a hinged fall with book-rest moulding and enclosing an interior fitted with a well with sliding cover, a small cupboard door flanked by 'book'-slides and three short drawers to each side. At the ends a pair of stepped shelves above a small drawer. All walnut-veneered, cross-banded and feather banded. The sliding cover lined with later green damask. The fall above lopers and two short and two long drawers, all surrounded by a double carcase beading. With moulded base rail, and bun feet. With double feather-banding. The fall's lock shooting three bolts. The bureau's carcase of deal.
Full description
John Pardoe supplied Erddig with sconces and mirror glasses between 1717 and 1723. This is almost certainly the 'writing desk & bookcase with looking glass doors' for which he invoiced John Meller on 20th March 1717 and which cost £10 15s. The upper section was altered by Pardoe in 1717. It has been noted this is the earliest documented example of the use of the coved frieze (Bowett).
Provenance
Almost certainly purchased by John Meller (d. 1733) in March 1717. Thence by descent, and given by Philip Yorke III (1905 - 1978) along with the estate, house and contents to the National Trust in 1973.
Makers and roles
John Pardoe (fl.1717 - 1748), maker
References
Bowett 2009, Early Georgian Furniture 1715 - 1740 (2009), Illustrated and discussed pp. 58 - 59, Plate 2:13. Beard and Gilbert, 1986: Geoffrey Beard and Christopher Gilbert (ed), Dictionary of English Furniture Makers 1660-1840, 1986