Description
Circa 1740, probably originally with a middle section and with consequential alterations The broken triangular pediment with leaf tip edge above a cornice with adorsed eagles heads conjoined by a lambrequined collar and issuing scrolling acanthus, the glazed door with outset upper corners above volute-scrolled lower corners and with rosette and ribbon-wrapped surround and rope-twist inner edge, enclosing a damask silk-lined interior, above a Greek key band, the lower section with curved mahogany-lined drawer carved with ribbon-tied oak leaf garlands, rockwork and C-scroll escutcheon flanked by outset platforms above a Vitruvian-scrolled waist, the doors with rosette and ribbon-wrapped circular molded panels within foliate-scroll spandrels, enclosing three long drawers, above a leaf tip-carved plinth, electrified for lights, inscribed in blue china marker 3654 and...3 Parts, also inscribed in red paint 95.139, the door originally with mirror plate, the plinths now inset with oak panels and part of the alterations 901/4in. (229cm.) high, 463/4in. (119cm.) wide, 22in. (56cm.) deep PROVENANCE Almost certainly with Frank Partridge, London and sold to William Hesketh Lever, later 1st Viscount Leverhulme, on 30 October 1922 (Lady Lever Art Gallery, inventory no. X4148). The Art Collections of the Late Viscount Leverhulme, Anderson Galleries, New York, 9 February 1926 (the first day of the sale), lot 100, illustrated in the catalogue ($2,600). With Frank Partridge, London ( Exhibition of Art Treasures under the Auspices of The British Antique Dealers' Association, Grafton Galleries, 1928, illustrated in the catalogue, item 103, p.18, and illustration facing p.36). The Estate of the late Millicent A. Rogers, Taos, New Mexico, sold Parke-Bernet Galleries Inc., New York 2-4 December 1954, lot 520. Anonymous sale, Sotheby's New York, 23 January 1988, lot 176 (represented as 19th century). With Ronald A. Lee, London. Sold by the above to Hotspur, London on 21 January 1994. With Hotspur, London. Sold to a private collector on 11 April 1995 who gave it to the Museum in the same year. LITERATURE G. Beard, 'Vile and Cobb, 18th Century London Furniture Makers', The Magazine Antiques, June 1990, p.1394. The Grosvenor House Antiques Fair Handbook, 1992, London, 1992, p.168 (with Ronald A. Lee). NOTES THE ORNAMENT The cabinet's architecture reflects the Roman style first introduced by the English court architect Inigo Jones (d.1652). This fashion was promoted by Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington as the George II national style through publications such as Isaac Ware's Designs of Inigo Jones and Others, 1731, which included chimney-piece designs by Lord Burlington and his Rome-trained protege William Kent (d.1748), Master Carpenter of the Kings Board of Works. It reflects, in particular, the influence of Batty Langley's The City and Country Builders and Workmans Treasury of Designs, 1740 that was prefaced with 'The Five Orders of Columns' according to Andrea Palladio and included various temple-pedimented bookcases according to the Tuscan, Doric and Ionic manner. This cabinet's Tuscan pediment is opened for the display of an antique bust; while its plinth is enriched with a Grecian fretted ribbon-guilloche. Its door incorporates a tablet-cornered frame that rises from Ionic-voluted trusses that are flowered with Roman acanthus and relate to one of Langley's chimney-piece patterns (pl. LXXXV) while conjoined heads of Jupiter's sacred eagle emerge from beribboned festoons of Roman acanthus in the entablature of the cabinet; the deity's sacred oak is festooned in beribboned garlands across the ogival-sloped tablet, which rises above a plinth that is fretted with a Vitruvian wave-scroll and foliated ribbon-guilloche. The doors of the plinth-supported commode section are enriched in the Roman manner with acanthus spandrels framing wreaths of flowers in moulded ribbon-guilloches. The oak garlands, relating to those of Rome's Temple of Fortuna Virilis, are tied with large ribbons in the manner of the festive garlands featured in one of Kent's wall-elevation illustrated by Ware (plate 38). Another of Kent's temple-pedimented chimney-pieces also featured oak garlands and Vitruvian wave-scrolls (Ware, plate 34). COMPARABLE EXAMPLES This cabinet, distinguished by its open pediment, broad central section and boldly carved embellishments, relates to a group of small-scale breakfront cabinets which typically feature a central arched glazed door but vary in their carved details. The maker of this particular group of bookcases has not been identified. Within the group, this piece's bomb‚ midsection and circular panelled doors framed by foliate scrolled spandrels most closely relates to an example with the London dealers Mallett which is illustrated in L.Synge, Great English Furniture, London, 1991, p.104, fig.115. The Mallett cabinet features slender outer wings headed by scroll corbels as do other examples in the group. Other relevant comparisons within in the group includes one illustrated in J.L. Hinckley, A Directory of Queen Anne, Early Georgian and Chippendale Furniture, New York, 1971, pl.103) which shares the boldly swagged middle (although suspended from a ring and clasps rather than bound by a ribbon tie) and another sold anonymously, Christie's London, 20 April 1978, lot 99 and later Sotheby's New York, 21 November 1981, lot 245 with its laurel swags, Vitruvian scroll waist and tapering middle. The eagles joined by a coronet is a motif that also appears on a parcel-gilt cabinet formerly in the collection of Sir George Donaldson and later sold from the Estate of Marjorie Wiggin Prescott, in these Rooms, 31 January 1981, lot 357 (illustrated in P.Macquoid and R.Edwards, The Dictionary of English Furniture, London, 1924, vol.I, p.134, fig.32). A small group of bureau-cabinets whose architectural upper cases mirror the Museum's example bears a mention, although the bases on these cabinets are very restrained by comparison. This group comprises: an example from the Percival D. Griffiths collection illustrated in situ at Sandridgebury, Hertfordshire (R.W. Symonds, English Furniture from Charles II to George II, 1929, fig.209); another from the collection of the late Helena Hayward, sold Sotheby's London, 4 July 1997, lot 44; and a further example sold, the Property of a Gentleman, Christie's London, 6 July 2000, lot 110. This group is now attributed to a little known cabinet-maker Charles Smith of Portugal Street. This attribution is based on Ronald Lee's identification of virtually identical examples belonging to Smith's descendants that the family purports to have been made by their ancestor. A Charles Smith association may explain this group's affinity with works attributed to Vile and Hallett. The same Charles Smith (w.1746-1767) was co-executor together with William Hallett Sr. to William Vile's estate when the latter died in 1767. Smith would almost certainly have been influenced by these two esteemed cabinet-makers, for instance, in the use of foliate clasped ovals on this cabinet which were signature traits in the designs of both Vile and Hallett. THE PROVENANCE This cabinet almost certainly formed part of the remarkable collection assembled by William Hesketh Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme, who established the Lady Lever Art Gallery in 1922. The cabinet in the 1926 sale catalogue is particularly interesting from the point of view of its apparent modifications which must have taken place prior this date. Much has been written about the alterations carried forth by William Vile and John Cobb on carved mahogany pieces in the Royal collection. While it seems unlikely that the modifications on this cabinet would have taken place in the eighteenth century, it is reasonable to assume they were executed sometime in the nineteenth century, as supported by the later inset oak panels of a type used in the nineteenth century. It is natural to assume that Partridge bought the Leverhulme cabinet at auction in 1926 as he sold it to him in 1922 and exhibits the piece in 1928, two years later. It is quite possible that Mr. Partridge had purchased the cabinet directly from Mr. Mulliner prior to selling it to Lord Leverhulme as he cites Mulliner provenance in his 1928 exhibition catalogue. There is no evidence to support this provenance, however as the cabinet does not appear in the Christie's sale nor is it illustrated in H.A.Tipping's Country Life series on his collection published in 1924. Perhaps it was Mr. Partridge who sold the piece to Millicent Rogers, as it appears in the sale of her estate in 1954. The granddaugher of one of the original founders of Standard Oil, Henry Huttleston Rogers, she spent much of her life in Europe. She was later drawn to Taos by its landscape and history; a museum that bears her name was established in the mid-1950s and still remains open today.
