Folio cabinet
Henry Thomas [Enrico] Peters (1793 Windsor - 1852 Genoa)
Category
Furniture
Date
circa 1820
Materials
Rosewood, satinwood, ebony, mahogany, deal, gilt metal
Measurements
91.5 x 143 x 85.5 cm
Place of origin
Genoa
Order this imageCollection
Attingham Park, Shropshire
NT 608201
Summary
A satinwood-inlaid rosewood folio or plan chest, attributed to Henry Thomas [Enrico] Peters (1793-1852), Genoa, circa 1820. The rectangular top with a gadrooned edge and above a pair of paneled doors veneered with rosewood and inlaid with a laurel and berry riband-tied wreath within a border with scroll and arabesque-inlaid corners. The doors folding open and sliding back into the cabinet, where they flank two banks of three short drawers above three long drawers, all satinwood-veneered and fitted with turned ebony handles. The doors flanked by a pair of spiral-fluted and opposing baluster-turned columns, with match-strike decoration. All raised on a plinth base.
Full description
The chest was once attributed to Gillows of Lancaster, but recent research by National Trust furniture curators on the Italian furniture at Attingham has suggested that it was probably made in Genoa by Henry Thomas [Enrico] Peters (1793-1852), an English-born cabinet-maker who moved to Italy around 1817, and was purchased by William Noel Hill, 3rd Baron Berwick to furnish his Genoese house whilst on diplomatic service. He may have purchased this house as early 1813 and his letters reveal that he had 'mahogany tables made at Genoa because more English dined' with him there. Peters advertised his speciality in furniture made from mahogany, and examples of his work survive in the Palazzo Rosso, Genoa. He was appointed royal cabinet-maker to the House of Savoy (1836-46) and supplied furniture to the royal palaces. Attingham's folio cabinet is close in style to a commode made by him in 1833 for Castello Racconigi, Turin for which his two design drawings survive. This cabinet was depicted in a watercolour by Lady Hester Leeke (d. 1887) in the centre of Attingham's top-lit Picture Gallery in about 1845.
Provenance
Attingham collection; possibly acquired by William Noel-Hill, 3rd Baron Berwick (1773-1842) in Genoa. Thence by descent and bequeathed with the estate, house and partial contents of Attingham by Thomas Henry Noel-Hill, 8th Baron Berwick (1877-1947) and transferred to the National Trust on 15th May 1953.
Marks and inscriptions
Lock: CROWN PATENT
Makers and roles
Henry Thomas [Enrico] Peters (1793 Windsor - 1852 Genoa), cabinetmaker
References
Rowell & Burchard 2020: Christopher Rowell & Wolf Burchard, 'Italian Furniture at Attingham Park', Furniture History LVI (2020), 107-176, 135-6, Figures 33-35 Rathschüler (2014): G. Antonella Rathschüler, Henry Thomas Peters e l'Industria del Mobile nell'Ottocento (Genoa: Il Canneto editore, 2014)