London.- Lucas (George Oakley) Plan of the Parish of Paddington, Middlesex, lithograph with hand-colouring, 630 x 520 mm (24 3/4 x 20 1/2 in), dissected and mounted on linen, folding into green cloth covers, worn, 8vo, 1869
London.- Lucas (George Oakley) Plan of the Borough of St. Mary-le-Bone, comprising the Parishes of Paddington, St. Mary-le-Bone & St. Pancras, in the County of Middlesex, large engraved wall map with hand-colouring, 1140 x 1170 mm (43 7/8 x 46 in), mounted on linen, varnished, with wooden rollers to upper and lower edges, discolouration and browning to varnish, handling creases, some splitting, surface dirt, rolled, published by Ch[arle]s Haselden, 21, Wigmore St. Cavendish Square, 1850. ⁂ Scarce, we can trace no other institutional examples.
GEORGE OAKLEY (BRITISH-AMERICAN, 1793-1869) PORTRAIT OF A WOMAN, oil on canvas laid on board, profile depiction of a finely dressed seated woman in rapt attention, a theatre attendant, signed with monogram and dated lower left, mounting board inscribed "A Study from life by George Oakley - an oil painting on canvass", followed by a French inscription describing the sitter at the theater, ending with "Presente a Mons. Alexandre Vattemare / par G. Oakley / New York le 2 Dec 1839". Housed under glass in an old frame.
Possibly by George Bullock The rectangular cavetto cornice above a plain frieze and a central section for adjustable shelves, flanked on each side by a trellis-panelled doors, one enclosing four later drawers, one enclosing three later drawers, each with two original shelves, above a later marble shelf, above four panelled doors, the central breakfront section containing two removable shelves, the sides each with four graduated drawers, on a plinth base, the original locks stamped 'I.BRAMAH PATENT' beneath a Crown, the third right-hand drawer of the plinth section with a patch to the carcass 97 in. (246 cm.) high; 971/4 in. (247 cm.) wide; 22 in. (56 cm.) deep PROVENANCE Almost certainly supplied to Thomas, 2nd Marquess of Bath (1765-1837) for Longleat, Wiltshire and by descent at Longleat. LITERATURE 1837 Inventory, p. 10 In Gallery, 'Oak Chest of Drawers and Book Case'. 1852 Inventory, p. 10 In Gallery, 'Oak Chest of Drawers and Book Case'. 1869 Inventory, First Floor North and East Corridor, 'A winged oak Bookcase with marble slab'. 1896 Inventory (2nd Marquess' Heirlooms), f 104 r Small Lobby Ground Floor, 'An oak open bookcase with mahogany mouldings, four open shelves, two cupboards at sides with silk and wire panelled doors, three cupboards under with four panelled doors, dove marble slab'. NOTES The bookcase, with golden trellis-grilled cabinet and marble-topped commode, has pilasters embellished with black bas-relief paterae and ribbon-inlaid tablets. It is conceived in the French/Grecian manner promoted around 1800 by George, Prince of Wales and by the connoisseur, Thomas Hope (d. 1831). Its manufacture in patriotic British oak reflects the antiquarian taste appropriate to Longleat's Elizabethan architecture. The cupboards are fitted with Bramah patent locks, the patent having been granted in 1784 and extended in 1798 for a further fourteen years. This style of furniture was a speciality of George Bullock (d. 1818) who opened his celebrated London show rooms in Piccadilly's 'Egyptian Hall' in 1812 and was commissioned in 1815 to manufacture related furniture for the St. Helena residence occupied by Napoleon (C. Wainwright et al., George Bullock and his Circle, London, 1988, no. 19 and M. Levy, 'Napoleon in Exile', Furniture History, 1998, pp. 49 and 53, figs. 36, 37 and 38). As an alternative to George Bullock, the St. Paul's Church Yard cabinet-maker, George Oakley may also be a possibility as he supplied a suite of oak seat furniture to the 2nd Marquess of Bath in 1812, his bill of 1813 amounting to œ295 5. 6 d (see lot 361). Whilst the bookcase is very much in the style of George Bullock, his early death in 1818 certainly resulted in Messrs. Morant manufacturing furniture for Mathew Robinson Boulton at Great Tew Park, Oxfordshire in his signature style (see the bookcase sold anonymously at Bonhams, London, 9 April 2002, lot 129).
By George Oakley Each with a curved tablet toprail carved at each end and to the centre with foliage, above an eagle-carved splat, the straight arms on foliage-scrolled supports, flanking a caned seat with buttoned green leather squab, on reeded tapering legs with Vitruvian-scrolled collars and bulb feet, stamped 'DD' (2) PROVENANCE Supplied to Thomas, 2nd Marquess of Bath (1765-1837) for Longleat, Wiltshire and by descent at Longleat. Literature for the suite: Visible in Mary, Lady Carteret's watercolour of 1836-1837 of the Library at Longleat. 1837 Inventory, p. 47, No. 65 Ante Library or Breakfast Room, 'Oak Lounge with cushions & coverings Twelve carved Chairs caned Seats & Cushions', p. 49, No. 66 Library, 'Two Easy Chairs in Oak Frames and Green Leather coverings... Ten caned Chairs with cane Seats and Green Leather Cushions Six Elbow carved Chairs with Cane seats and Green Leather Cushions'. 1852 Inventory, p. 43, No. 65 Ante Library or Breakfast Room, 'Oak lounge with cushions', p. 44, No. 66 Library, 'Twelve carved Chairs caned seats and cushions', p. 45 'Two Easy Chairs in Oak Frames and Green Leather coverings. Ten carved Chairs, Cane Seats & Green Leather Cushions Six Elbow carved Chairs, cane seats and Green Leather Cushions.' 1869 Inventory, Entrance Hall, 'Eighteen carved oak chairs with cane seats and green leather cushions', Great Library, 'Twelve easy chairs Six carved Oak Arm Chairs with cushions covered en suite (green leather)', Small Library, 'Four carved oak chairs with green leather cushions', Second Floor Bedroom No 4, 'A carved Oak Sofa with pillow and bolster covered with cloth', Second Floor Bedroom No. 1, 'A carved oak couch with bolster and pillow covered with green cloth'. 1896 Inventory (2nd Marquess' Heirlooms), f 95 r Green Library 'Two large unpolished carved oak open armchairs on reeded legs with cushion seats in green morocco leather', f 99 r Front Hall, 'Thirteen carved unpolished oak frame chairs with cane seats and loose cushions in green morocco leather', f 103 r The late Marquess of Bath's Sitting Room, 'An unpolished carved oak frame easy chair with squab seat in green leather and on oak and brass book rest', f 111 r Chapel Corridor, 'Four large carved unpolished oak open arm chairs with cushions in green morocco'. C. Latham, In English Homes, London, 1904, vol. I, p. 182-183 (two side chairs from the suite shown in situ in the Hall). 'Longleat, Warminster', Country Life, 2 May 1903, p. 569-570 (two side chairs from the suite in situ in the Hall). H. Granville Fell (ed.), The Connoisseur Year Book, 1951, London, p. 40, figs. II and III (side chairs from the suite in situ in the Hall). The Marchioness of Bath, Longleat from 1566 to the Present Time, Northampton, 2nd ed., 1951, p. 21 (side chairs from the suite in situ in the Hall). NOTES The library chairs, fitted with squab-cushions in the French manner, formed part of Thomas, 2nd Marquess of Bath's refurbishments at Longleat. They were made by George Oakley (d. 1841), whose Bond Street 'Manufactory and Magazine for fashionable Furniture' attracted the patronage of George IV when Prince of Wales and Prince Regent. They are conceived as 'Chaise a l'antique' in the Parisian style promoted by Thomas Hope's Household Furniture and Interior Decoration, 1807 and adopted at the same period by Thomas Chippendale Junior. Their ornament evokes the triumph of lyric poetry, with Apollo's sunflower displayed on their palm-flowered 'Klismos' tablet-rails and the poetry deity's chimerical griffin emerging from foliated scrolls on the rails linking the Grecian-scrolled pillars of their backs. More antique-scrolled foliage enriches their arm-trusses and the reeded columns of their legs. They formed part of a suite of seat-furniture and may have accompanied a library-table. The armchairs were described as six 'large fauteuille Chairs with head tablets highly finished' when the suite was invoiced on 30th October 1812. The armchairs cost œ75 12 s, while their 'bordered seat cushions' cost œ13 10s. The armchairs were accompanied by a set of ten chairs without arms and a pair of fireside bergere chairs that Oakley called 'Woburn' chairs, and related to a 'Library Fauteuil' pattern with fitted reading-desks on the arms, which George Smith illustrated in his Collection of Designs for Household Furniture and Interior Decoration, 1808 (pl. 42). The present 'fauteuils' were designed en suite with two fireside Grecian sofas, that were invoiced at œ80 and described as '2 Elegant Chaise longues formed of Oak and richly ornamented with carvings in the grecian style supported on bronze Castors square stuffd in green morocco leather and finished with silk tufts & Gymp'. Oakley, who had begun business in St. Paul's Church Yard in the 1780s, had entered into partnership with the carver and gilder, John Evans, in 1800. The use of national oak for Longleat's library furniture reflects an antiquarian association with English furniture of the age of Shakespeare and with the mansion's Elizabethan architecture. Likewise the intricate carving of the rails can also be linked to the contemporary antique Indian ebony furnishings of George, Prince of Wales, which were then dated to the Elizabethan age. Indeed Longleat was well known for its ebony furniture, commented upon by Horace Walpole, and some of which was listed in an inventory of 1740. It is therefore possible that in designing the present suite, Oakley was influenced by the ebony furniture at Longleat. A closely related oak open armchair, with chimerical arm-supports, was sold anonymously, in these Rooms, 14 April 1988, lot 17 and another with lion-headed arm-supports, was sold from the Wilfred Evill Collection, Sotheby's London, 12 July 1963, lot 87.
