A PAIR OF MID-VICTORIAN BRASS-MOUNTED OAK HALL BENCHES
A PAIR OF MID-VICTORIAN BRASS-MOUNTED OAK HALL BENCHES

BY JAMES SHOOLBRED & CO., CIRCA 1864

Details
A PAIR OF MID-VICTORIAN BRASS-MOUNTED OAK HALL BENCHES
By James Shoolbred & Co., circa 1864
Each with spindel-inset crestrail and plank seat flanked by downcurved arms terminating in side roundels, on incised slight cabriole legs and similarly incised box stretchers, each with registration brand for 13 December 1864
24½ in.(62 cm.) high, 22½ in. (57 cm.) wide (2)

Lot Essay

James Shoolbred and Company was located on Tottenham Court Road, a thriving center for fashionable furniture shops from the 1860s. They operated one of the first great department stores in London, and while their trade was diverse, they began producing furniture in around 1870. They issued an important catalogue of the firm's work in 1876 and earned a Royal warrant in the mid-1880s. Their output encompassed all prevailing styles including Art furniture, 'Old English' and 'Japanese' (see E. Joy, ed., Pictorial Dictionary of British 19th Century Furniture Design, Woodbridge, Suffolk, 1977, p. xxxvi) as evident by the 1878 Paris Universal Exhibition in which they offered 'a very extensive selection of items'. Much of the furniture they designed was influenced by the 'Aesthetic Taste', popularised by Oscar Wilde and the architect E.W. Godwin.

A pair of hall stools of this design was sold from the collection of Mary, Viscountess Rothermere, Christie's, New York, 16 April 1994, lot 150. Another pair sold Sotheby's, New York, 11-12 April 1997, lot 828.

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