Untitled
Category
Furniture
Date
circa 1780
Materials
Satinwood, mahogany, oak drawer linings, burr elm, brass
Measurements
137.5 x 63 x 26 cm
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Saltram, Devon
NT 871443
Summary
A satinwood, mahogany and fruitwood marquetry cabinet on stand, English, circa 1780. The top inlaid with a book (titled '1') amidst a spray of berried leaves and edge by a moulded cornice above a frieze topped by an upper register of applied dentils between pierced roundels. The frieze proper inlaid with two sprays of slender leaves either side of a flowerhead. The pair of doors with waisted satinwood panels forming the ground for inlay of trophies, a riband-topped medallion and berried leaves and enclosing a mahogany-veneered interior of shelves and two banks of four graduated short drawers fitted with brass handles and veneered with burr elm. The stand with shaped friezes crossbanded in harewood and with a satinwood ground inlaid with a central wreath between sprays of flowers. The legs tapering and square-section and with ebonized collars. The edges of the interior finely finished with chequered inlay of various designs.
Full description
This cabinet bears a resemblance to a group of furniture which has been tentatively attributed to various cabinet makers but, more recently, to an immigrant cabinet-maker previously active in Paris. The Nostell Priory commode [NT 959741] bears similarly-shaped satinwood panels to the doors. This commode is part of a group which includes a Bonheur-du-jour sold at Christie's on 20th November 1986, another Bonheur-du-jour in the collections of the National Trust at Dunham Massey [NT 930619] and a pair of serpentine side tables sold from the estate of the 4th Lord Wrottesley at Sotheby's on 28th June 1968, Lot 162. All of these pieces share crossbanding edging shaped friezes and meandering sprays of foliage including slender leaves. However, it should be noted that a pair of satinwood and fruitwood floral marquetry inlaid cabinets-on-stands, circa 1790, sold at Sotheby's on 8th March 2016 [Lot 174] and which were compared in the catalogue to this cabinet on stand, were attributed to the firm of Ince & Mayhew. Another - extremely similar - cabinet, also attributed to Ince & Mayhew, was sold 20th November 2008 at Christie's [Lot 26]. This shallow drawers to the interior of the Saltram cabinet were used in the late 19th century to store bird egg specimens. Several of the drawers - many of which were once fitted with divisions - bears slender paper labels with inked inscriptions. One of these is dated 1891.
Provenance
Date of introduction to Saltram not recorded, but at Saltram by 1951 and accepted by HM Treasury in lieu of full payment of Death Duty from the Executors of Edmund Robert Parker (1878 – 1951), 4th Earl of Morley and transferred to the National Trust in 1957.
Marks and inscriptions
Drawers: Various - to include 'Finch 1891', 'Yellowhammer', 'Cheffinch Bullfinch'
References
Wood, 1994: Lucy Wood, The Lady Lever Art Gallery, Catalogue of Commodes, London, 1994, pp. 133 - 134