Bonheur-du-jour
Category
Furniture
Date
circa 1770
Materials
Oak and pine carcass, veneered with satinwood, kingwood, sycamore and purpleheart marquetry
Measurements
103 x 69 x 47 cm
Order this imageCollection
Uppark House and Garden, West Sussex
NT 137639
Summary
A marquetry bonheur du jour in the French Transition style, English, circa 1770, veneered in satinwood and kingwood, inlaid with ram's heads, anthemions, husk-garlands and neoclassical ewers, the frieze to the apron is centred by an antelope, possibly in relation to the crest of the Fetherstonhaughs. The baluster-shaped wooden gallery above a superstructure centred by tambour shutters revealing a pigeon hole, flanked to each side by a door enclosing four small drawers. The table top is veneered and sits above a sliding writing surface, each side is fitted with two drawers, on cabriole legs. Sir Matthew's accounts book show payments to John Cobb in 1765 for "Chairs" and it has been suggested that the present piece, in the French manner, could have been executed by him.
Provenance
by descent; given to the National Trust in 1954 with the house and some of its contents by Admiral the Hon. Sir Herbert Meade-Fetherstonhaugh.
References
Coleridge, 1967: Anthony Coleridge. “Georgian cabinet-makers at Uppark, Sussex.” Connoisseur 166 October 1967: pp.74-9.