Wardrobe
Hobbs and Co.
Category
Furniture
Date
circa 1875 - 1890
Materials
Walnut, brass, cedar, softwood, silvered mirror glass
Measurements
205 x 205 x 56 cm
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Greenway, Devon
NT 119443.1
Summary
A walnut combination wardrobe, English, last quarter 19th century, part of a set of four pieces of bedroom furniture comprising a clothes press [NT 119443.2], a dressing table [NT 119443.3] and a pot cupboard [NT 119443.4]. All with locks by Hobbs & Co. of London. One of the wardrobe doors with a door bolt marked 'W. TONKS & SONS / REGISTERED / APRIL 16 1873'. Topped by a moulded and dentilled cornice above, at the proper right end, a pair of cupboard doors, each with a fielded panel within mouldings and enclosing hooks, above five graduated short drawers with fielded fronts. To the centre and the proper left end a pair of full-length doors, both with square fielded panels at the top and bottom, and one with a panel of mirror glass, enclosing brass hooks and a hanging rail, all above a long drawer with brass flush handles. All raised on a plinth base. With brass fittings throughout, including pierced hinges and handle backplates. -- William Tonks & Sons. were Birmingham founders operating, from around the early 1860s, from Moseley Street.
Provenance
The pot cupboard [NT 119443.4] which is part of the same set of bedroom furniture with provenance notes stating that it was introduced to Greenway by Agatha Christie Mallowan (1890-1976) and was listed in an inventory taken just before the house was requisitioned by the American Navy in 1942. Given to the National Trust by Mrs Rosalind Hicks (d. 2004), Anthony Hicks (d. 2005) and Mathew Prichard in 2006, and accepted in 2007.
Marks and inscriptions
Locks: HOBBS & CO. LONDON / LEVER / MACHINE MADE Bolt: W. TONKS & SONS / REGISTERED / APRIL 16 1873
Makers and roles
Hobbs and Co., locksmith William Tonks & Sons, locksmith