Lot Essay
These monumental marble-topped and plinth-supported library-cabinets with bronze and ormolu enrichments are designed in the 'Egyptian' style, after the French manner, introduced in the first decade of the 19th Century by connoisseurs such as Thomas Hope (d. 1831).
Their elegant tripartite facades of silken-figured mahogany are centred by Isis trophies of solar-discs born by winged cobras, and fronted by paired herm-pilasters with golden altar-drapery. The latter bear busts of Isis-priestesses wearing striated 'nemes' headdresses, while bas-reliefs in the frieze above depict ribbon-tied 'falcon' wings emerging from palmettes. These lyre-badges accompany lunar-masks that flank Isis-stars and a central winged and cobra-protected solar-disc, emblematic of earth and heaven. The latter derives from the frieze of Apollo's Temple at Thebes which was illustrated in Baron Vivant Denon's influential publication on Egyptian antiquities, Voyage dans la Basse et la Haute Egypte, 1802.
Charles Percier (d. 1838) architect to Emperor Napoléon Bonaparte, also introduced Isis herms on a star-studded cabinet which he designed for the Empress Josephine, while a related commode pattern featured in his Receuil de Decorations Intérieures, 1802, pl. 40. Hope, who admired Percier's work and had himself studied antiquities in Egypt, displayed a French bronze and ormolu 'Isis' clock in his Duchess Street mansion/museum and illustrated it in his Household Furniture and Interior Decoration, 1807, pl. VII. He also designed a bookcase with Isis-busts for his Surrey house, The Deepdene (M. Jourdain and R. Fastnedge, Regency Furniture, London, 1965, fig. 18).
However, these superb bookcase-cabinets relate in particular to the drawing-room cabinet with 'antique' heads and a marble slab, commissioned by Orlando, 2nd Lord Bradford for Weston Park, Staffordshire (P. Rogers, 'The Remodelling of Weston Park', Furniture History Society Journal, 1987, fig. 10). It was invoiced in 1806 by Messrs. Morel and Hughes, cabinet-makers of Great Marlborough Street, who may at this time have supplied the 'Isis-hermed' cabinet which belonged to George, Prince of Wales, later King George IV (The National Art Collections Fund Review, 1993, no. 3885).
Robert Ferguson (d. 1840), MP for Fife is likely to have commissioned these cabinets for Raith Park, Fife, soon after a visit to Paris in 1803. Indeed the Isis sun-disc trophy served as a plinth-label on Egyptian priestess candelabra executed by the Parisian bronze-founder Pierre-Philippe Thomire (d. 1843). And the latter figures originated as caryatids supporting a console-table with related hieroglyphic bas-reliefs that was invented by Charles Percier (d. 1838) about 1800. (Egytomania, Egypt in Western Art 1730-1930, Musée du Louvre, exhibition, Paris, 1994, figs. 168 and 166). It therefore seems likely that Ferguson may have obtained the commode pattern and bought the mounts during his visit to Paris. Ferguson, who was a literary and scientific amateur, shared an enthusiasm for antiquity with his Scottish neighbour Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin and 11th Earl of Kincardine (d. 1841) and the two met on this occasion in Paris while the Earl was returning with the Parthenon marbles which he had acquired while serving as King George III's Ambassador Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Sublime Port of Selim III, Sultan of Turkey. Mary Hamilton Nisbet, 7th Countess of Elgin (d. 1855) was later to become the wife of Robert Ferguson after a celebrated divorce case in 1807.
Their elegant tripartite facades of silken-figured mahogany are centred by Isis trophies of solar-discs born by winged cobras, and fronted by paired herm-pilasters with golden altar-drapery. The latter bear busts of Isis-priestesses wearing striated 'nemes' headdresses, while bas-reliefs in the frieze above depict ribbon-tied 'falcon' wings emerging from palmettes. These lyre-badges accompany lunar-masks that flank Isis-stars and a central winged and cobra-protected solar-disc, emblematic of earth and heaven. The latter derives from the frieze of Apollo's Temple at Thebes which was illustrated in Baron Vivant Denon's influential publication on Egyptian antiquities, Voyage dans la Basse et la Haute Egypte, 1802.
Charles Percier (d. 1838) architect to Emperor Napoléon Bonaparte, also introduced Isis herms on a star-studded cabinet which he designed for the Empress Josephine, while a related commode pattern featured in his Receuil de Decorations Intérieures, 1802, pl. 40. Hope, who admired Percier's work and had himself studied antiquities in Egypt, displayed a French bronze and ormolu 'Isis' clock in his Duchess Street mansion/museum and illustrated it in his Household Furniture and Interior Decoration, 1807, pl. VII. He also designed a bookcase with Isis-busts for his Surrey house, The Deepdene (M. Jourdain and R. Fastnedge, Regency Furniture, London, 1965, fig. 18).
However, these superb bookcase-cabinets relate in particular to the drawing-room cabinet with 'antique' heads and a marble slab, commissioned by Orlando, 2nd Lord Bradford for Weston Park, Staffordshire (P. Rogers, 'The Remodelling of Weston Park', Furniture History Society Journal, 1987, fig. 10). It was invoiced in 1806 by Messrs. Morel and Hughes, cabinet-makers of Great Marlborough Street, who may at this time have supplied the 'Isis-hermed' cabinet which belonged to George, Prince of Wales, later King George IV (The National Art Collections Fund Review, 1993, no. 3885).
Robert Ferguson (d. 1840), MP for Fife is likely to have commissioned these cabinets for Raith Park, Fife, soon after a visit to Paris in 1803. Indeed the Isis sun-disc trophy served as a plinth-label on Egyptian priestess candelabra executed by the Parisian bronze-founder Pierre-Philippe Thomire (d. 1843). And the latter figures originated as caryatids supporting a console-table with related hieroglyphic bas-reliefs that was invented by Charles Percier (d. 1838) about 1800. (Egytomania, Egypt in Western Art 1730-1930, Musée du Louvre, exhibition, Paris, 1994, figs. 168 and 166). It therefore seems likely that Ferguson may have obtained the commode pattern and bought the mounts during his visit to Paris. Ferguson, who was a literary and scientific amateur, shared an enthusiasm for antiquity with his Scottish neighbour Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin and 11th Earl of Kincardine (d. 1841) and the two met on this occasion in Paris while the Earl was returning with the Parthenon marbles which he had acquired while serving as King George III's Ambassador Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Sublime Port of Selim III, Sultan of Turkey. Mary Hamilton Nisbet, 7th Countess of Elgin (d. 1855) was later to become the wife of Robert Ferguson after a celebrated divorce case in 1807.