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Lot Essay
This extraordinary, imposing cabinet is entirely decorated with scagliola panels, one of which is signed by Carlos Jacop(s), clearly a prolific and gifted artist about whom, however, nothing seems to be recorded.
CABINETS DECORATED WITH SCAGLIOLA
Both in Italy and in Southern Germany - the two main areas in Europe where scagliola was produced - this technique was mainly used for the decoration of entire walls, for altar fronts and table tops. Smaller, individual panels in the manner of oil paintings were also occasionally made, particularly during the latter part of the 18th century, but series of plaques for the adornment of furniture remained exceedingly rare. In 1681 Giovanni Leoni, a well-known maker originally from Carpi, the centre of North Italian scagliola production, delivered two cabinets (scrigni or armadi) decorated all over with plaques featuring flowers, birds, playing cards and other motifs for the Palazzo Ducale in Modena. Highly admired and often described in their time, these appear to have been lost (Erwin Neumann, 'Materialien zur Geschichte der Scagliola', Jahrbuch der kunsthistorischen Sammlungen in Wien 55 (1959), p. 104). Very few other cabinets of this kind are recorded, and the present one is by far the largest and most elaborate one known to exist.
Clearly, such scagliola plaques were inspired by the pietre dure ones produced in the Florentine granducal workshops specially to be employed on cabinets. From the early seventeenth century onwards, these were highly sought after, and series of plaques were even exported to Augsburg and other centres in order to be mounted on locally produced furniture. The last great pietre dure cabinet made in Florence itself, commissioned by the 3rd Duke of Beaufort and delivered to him in 1732, was sold at Christie's, London, on 5 July, 1990, lot 151, and again on 9 December 2004, lot 260. Extraordinarily, the composition of the present piece, although obviously belonging to a very different artistic tradition, is somewhat related to that masterpiece of court art, with its gabled top, its front composed of clearly demarcated sections and divided by pilasters, and its very imposing size.
CARLOS JACOP(S)
The cabinet is clearly not Italian. Its juxtaposition of black and pale brown woods, which extends to the characteristic panels of ornamental marquetry, points to it having been made in Southern Germany or Bohemia. There are certain similarities to the great cabinet decorated with relief intarsia panels made in 1723 by Johann Karl and Johannes Nicolaus Haberstumpf of Eger as a present from their town to Emperor Charles VI, now in the Museum für angewandte Kunst in Vienna (Jochen Voigt, Reliefintarsien aus Eger, Halle an der Saale 1999, pp. 86-88, fig. 65-66, cat.no. I.42), as well as to a number of large marquetry cabinets decorated with actual pietre dure panels, one of which was commissioned by the Prince-Bishop of Bressanone, probably in 1712 (Cat. Möbel, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Sammlungen Schloss Ambras, Innsbruck 1987, no. 23).
The scagliola plaques appear not to be Italian either. In their broad, painterly quality, the large panels with vases of flowers in particular are closely related to the work of Dominikus Zimmerman who worked in Southern Germany in the early 18th century (Neumann, pp. 141-143, figs. 124-125; Hugo Schnell, 'Die Scagliola-Arbeiten Dominikus Zimmermans, Zeitschrift des Deutschen Vereins für Kunstwissenschaft 10 (1943), pp. 105-128). Even the detail of the Bavarian or Tyrolean looking hat worn by the dogs on the two witty scenes with animals in the centre of the lower tier indicates that the panels were made in the same region as the cabinet itself. Sadly, nothing is known about the maker, Carlos Jacop(s), who proudly signed one of the main plaques and who was presumably responsible for all the delightfully varied scenes on the cabinet, clearly all made specially for their particular position and representing a highly ambitious commission. Engagingly, next to the pictorial panels, on the pilasters he has employed the scagliola technique in its basic function of imitating hardstones. Taking trompe l'oeil yet another step further, the architectural perspective of the recess behind the central doors is actually painted to resemble scagliola work.
Carlos Jacop or Jacops may conceivably be a relation of Adolphe Jacques who, his name Frenchified, worked for a number of years in Cologne, where around 1757-1761 he executed scagliola table tops for the Elector, Clemens August, as well as for the Amsterdam merchant Matthijs Herfst (Exh. cat. Kurfürst Clemens August, Landesherr und Mäzen des 18. Jahrhunderts, Brühl (Schloss Augustusburg) 1961, nos. 444-445, and an example sold, Sotheby's, Amsterdam, 31 March 1999, lot 242, now in the Amsterdam Historic Museum).
BRAMALL HALL
The earliest parts of Bramall Hall, Cheshire, one of the finest timber-framed houses of England, date from the late 14th century. Having remained in the Davenport family for some 500 years, it was passed on the death of William Davenport in 1869 to his son John William Handley Davenport. It was then leased to Wakefield Christy, a member of a well-known Stockport hatting firm and when the lease expired in the 1880s the contents were sold and much of the furniture disposed of, with only the most important pieces, including of course this cabinet, remaining in the family.
CABINETS DECORATED WITH SCAGLIOLA
Both in Italy and in Southern Germany - the two main areas in Europe where scagliola was produced - this technique was mainly used for the decoration of entire walls, for altar fronts and table tops. Smaller, individual panels in the manner of oil paintings were also occasionally made, particularly during the latter part of the 18th century, but series of plaques for the adornment of furniture remained exceedingly rare. In 1681 Giovanni Leoni, a well-known maker originally from Carpi, the centre of North Italian scagliola production, delivered two cabinets (scrigni or armadi) decorated all over with plaques featuring flowers, birds, playing cards and other motifs for the Palazzo Ducale in Modena. Highly admired and often described in their time, these appear to have been lost (Erwin Neumann, 'Materialien zur Geschichte der Scagliola', Jahrbuch der kunsthistorischen Sammlungen in Wien 55 (1959), p. 104). Very few other cabinets of this kind are recorded, and the present one is by far the largest and most elaborate one known to exist.
Clearly, such scagliola plaques were inspired by the pietre dure ones produced in the Florentine granducal workshops specially to be employed on cabinets. From the early seventeenth century onwards, these were highly sought after, and series of plaques were even exported to Augsburg and other centres in order to be mounted on locally produced furniture. The last great pietre dure cabinet made in Florence itself, commissioned by the 3rd Duke of Beaufort and delivered to him in 1732, was sold at Christie's, London, on 5 July, 1990, lot 151, and again on 9 December 2004, lot 260. Extraordinarily, the composition of the present piece, although obviously belonging to a very different artistic tradition, is somewhat related to that masterpiece of court art, with its gabled top, its front composed of clearly demarcated sections and divided by pilasters, and its very imposing size.
CARLOS JACOP(S)
The cabinet is clearly not Italian. Its juxtaposition of black and pale brown woods, which extends to the characteristic panels of ornamental marquetry, points to it having been made in Southern Germany or Bohemia. There are certain similarities to the great cabinet decorated with relief intarsia panels made in 1723 by Johann Karl and Johannes Nicolaus Haberstumpf of Eger as a present from their town to Emperor Charles VI, now in the Museum für angewandte Kunst in Vienna (Jochen Voigt, Reliefintarsien aus Eger, Halle an der Saale 1999, pp. 86-88, fig. 65-66, cat.no. I.42), as well as to a number of large marquetry cabinets decorated with actual pietre dure panels, one of which was commissioned by the Prince-Bishop of Bressanone, probably in 1712 (Cat. Möbel, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Sammlungen Schloss Ambras, Innsbruck 1987, no. 23).
The scagliola plaques appear not to be Italian either. In their broad, painterly quality, the large panels with vases of flowers in particular are closely related to the work of Dominikus Zimmerman who worked in Southern Germany in the early 18th century (Neumann, pp. 141-143, figs. 124-125; Hugo Schnell, 'Die Scagliola-Arbeiten Dominikus Zimmermans, Zeitschrift des Deutschen Vereins für Kunstwissenschaft 10 (1943), pp. 105-128). Even the detail of the Bavarian or Tyrolean looking hat worn by the dogs on the two witty scenes with animals in the centre of the lower tier indicates that the panels were made in the same region as the cabinet itself. Sadly, nothing is known about the maker, Carlos Jacop(s), who proudly signed one of the main plaques and who was presumably responsible for all the delightfully varied scenes on the cabinet, clearly all made specially for their particular position and representing a highly ambitious commission. Engagingly, next to the pictorial panels, on the pilasters he has employed the scagliola technique in its basic function of imitating hardstones. Taking trompe l'oeil yet another step further, the architectural perspective of the recess behind the central doors is actually painted to resemble scagliola work.
Carlos Jacop or Jacops may conceivably be a relation of Adolphe Jacques who, his name Frenchified, worked for a number of years in Cologne, where around 1757-1761 he executed scagliola table tops for the Elector, Clemens August, as well as for the Amsterdam merchant Matthijs Herfst (Exh. cat. Kurfürst Clemens August, Landesherr und Mäzen des 18. Jahrhunderts, Brühl (Schloss Augustusburg) 1961, nos. 444-445, and an example sold, Sotheby's, Amsterdam, 31 March 1999, lot 242, now in the Amsterdam Historic Museum).
BRAMALL HALL
The earliest parts of Bramall Hall, Cheshire, one of the finest timber-framed houses of England, date from the late 14th century. Having remained in the Davenport family for some 500 years, it was passed on the death of William Davenport in 1869 to his son John William Handley Davenport. It was then leased to Wakefield Christy, a member of a well-known Stockport hatting firm and when the lease expired in the 1880s the contents were sold and much of the furniture disposed of, with only the most important pieces, including of course this cabinet, remaining in the family.