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Lot Essay
‘The eating rooms are considered as the apartments of conversation, in which we are to pass a great part of our time. This renders it desirable to have them fitted up with elegance and splendour, but in a style different from that of other departments’ (Robert Adam, 1773)
This impressive and finely carved serving-table, with urns and pedestals en suite, part of a larger set of dining-room furniture also including a wine-cooler and a pair of smaller tables, were in the collection of the Bouverie family at Delapré Abbey, Northamptonshire, as recorded in 1941. The set was almost certainly made by the foremost London cabinet-making partnership of John Mayhew (1736-1811) and William Ince (1737-1804), in circa 1771-1772, probably for the Hon. Edward Bouverie (1738-1810), younger brother to William, 1st Earl of Radnor of Longford Castle, Wiltshire.
Mayhew & Ince
The customer ledger for the Hon. Edward Bouverie, held at Hoare’s Bank, London, shows that he was authorising payments to Mayhew & Ince from 6 Feb 1769 to 11 June 1772; the total amount came to the significant sum of £1,412.09 (C. Hoare & Co., London, customer ledger 79, f. 36, 38, 215, 216; ledger 81, f. 322; ledger 84, f. 395). In this period, no other furniture maker was recorded in the ledgers, with the exception of Gillows who were paid the negligible amount of £14.11. The likely creation date of the present set of dining-room furniture of 1771-1772, therefore, corresponds with Mayhew & Ince's contract as Edward Bouverie’s principal furniture suppliers.
The set demonstrates the partnership's promotion of the most advanced Neo-classical taste, and, undoubtedly, owes much to their collaboration with the country’s leading Neo-classical architect of the period, Robert Adam (1728-1792), notably, in the commission for the 6th Earl of Coventry at Croome Court, Worcestershire and Coventry House, Piccadilly (Beard, Gilbert, op. cit., pp. 592-596). (1) The firm faithfully reproduced Adam's furniture designs: sets of dining-room furniture, with a similar configuration, a serving-table flanked by a pair of urns and pedestals, a wine-cooler and mirror feature in The Works in Architecture of Robert and James Adam (two volumes published in 1773–1778 and 1779; a third volume published posthumously in 1822), including the set designed for William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield at Kenwood House, London (Vol. I, Plate VIII).
The form together with the classical ornament of this set is found on the documented furniture supplied by Mayhew & Ince between 1769 and 1772 to Francis Thomas Fitzmaurice, 3rd Earl of Kerry (1740-1818), for his house at Portman Square, London (Cator, op. cit., pp. 27-33). (2) While the Delapré Abbey set is carved, the ornamentation on Lord Kerry’s furniture is predominantly rendered in marquetry and ormolu. However, it is not unusual to find similarities between the firm’s carved and inlaid work. The bulbous shape of both sets of urns is virtually identical. Another comparable set, attributed to Mayhew & Ince, was formerly in the collection of the Bisshopp [sic]/de la Zouche family at Parham House, West Sussex, sold Christie’s, London, 21 April 1966, lots 134-137. This set is described in the 1826 Parham House inventory as, ‘a shaped side board mahogany top, carved frame painted, a wine-cooler, carved frame, a pair of pedestals and vases painted, a pier glass in a carved and painted frame (bordered), a pier table mahogany top and carved frame’ (West Sussex Record Office Ms. 1/5/2/2/4).
The variation of the carved ornamentation on this suite of furniture was undoubtedly intended to demonstrate the virtuosity of the firm; there are six different urn motifs, and seven diverse paterae. One of these urn motifs is also found on the frieze of a giltwood side table from Woodhall Park, almost certainly part of the same Mayhew & Ince commission that supplied the pair of pine pedestals in this sale (Lot 11).
The athenienne motif on the pedestals probably derives from a Renaissance marble relief by Simone Mosca at the Cesi Chapel, Santa Maria della Pace although this motif was probably disseminated in Europe by Joseph-Marie Vien’s La Vertueuse Athénienne (1762), circulated through an engraving by P. Filipart in 1765 (Coleridge, op. cit., p. 10, fig. 5). (3) This elongated athenienne motif manifests itself in the carved ‘Redwood’ basin and ewer stand made by Mayhew & Ince for the 6th Earl of Coventry in September 1767 (ibid., fig. 3 and p. 11). (3) This ornamentation additionally shares its form with a set of four carved giltwood torchères, also part of the Kerry commission (Roberts, op. cit., 2013, p. 23, fig. 14). (4) The characteristic block and spade feet with carved roundels of the serving-table likewise appear on a serving-table and pier table made by Mayhew & Ince for Lord Kerry. Furthermore, the interlaced pendant husk decoration on the tapering supports features on a mahogany cabinet, attributed to Mayhew & Ince, circa 1775, for the 4th Duke of Marlborough (Roberts, 1994, op. cit., fig. 26). (5)
A pair of pedestals with related marquetry urn and beribboned and entwined husk decoration, at present unattributed, is almost certainly by Mayhew & Ince. Now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, these too were formerly in the collection of Irwin Untermyer until 1964 (accession no. 64.101.1054, 1055).
The carved satyr-masks on the urns are closely comparable to those found on a wine-cooler, part of the dining-room suite supplied by Thomas Chippendale to Edwin Lascelles for Harewood House, Yorkshire, in circa 1771 (Gilbert, op. cit., vol. II, p. 192, fig. 350; vol. I, p. 201). (6) Their inclusion on the present urns suggests that this dining-room suite is almost certainly of a similar date; Mayhew & Ince on occasion emulated Chippendale’s furniture, and ‘William Ince, cabinet-maker’ was a subscriber to the first edition of the Director (1754).
The pedestal stands are almost identical to a pair, sold from the collection of Prince Littler (1901-1973) from Chestham Park, Sussex, Christie’s, London, 18 April 1977, lot 184, and later, ‘Fawley House’, Sotheby’s, London, 14-15 October 2003, lots 122, 121. These pedestals were accompanied by urns and a breakfront serving-table en suite; the latter, while less ornamented than the Delapré table, shares a similar breakfront form and carved vase antico with pendant husk garlands and oval paterae.
Interestingly, a set of four stools carved with the Bouverie crest were thought by the family to have been commissioned for Longford Castle by William Bouverie in 1765 (sold Christie’s, New York, 16 April 2002, lot 188). While traditionally ascribed to Chippendale, they correspond to a design by Mayhew & Ince in the Universal System of Household Furniture, 1762, pl. XXXIV, thus presenting a further possible link between the firm and the Bouverie family.
The Hon. Edward Bouverie and Delapré Abbey
The Hon. Edward Bouverie (1738-1810), MP for Salisbury, and Northampton, was the second son of Sir Jacob Bouverie, 1st Viscount Folkestone (1694-1761) and Mary Clarke of Hardingstone, Northamptonshire; his elder brother was William Bouverie, 1st Earl of Radnor and Baron Pleydell-Bouverie (1725-1776) of Longford Castle, Wiltshire. (7) The Bouverie (formerly Des Bouverie) family were Huguenots, who arrived in England in 1568; the family coat of arms, the double headed eagle, and motto resonate of the Huguenot plight, ‘My country is dear to me but more precious still is my freedom’. In 1764, Edward Bouverie married Harriet Fawkener, daughter of Sir Everard Fawkener, Ambassador to Constantinople. In the same year, he purchased Delapré Abbey, Northamptonshire, from the heiress, Mary Tate, and her husband, Admiral Charles Hardy, for £22,000. Delapré Abbey was a former Cluniac nunnery founded by Simon de Senlis, Earl of Northampton, in about 1125, with 16th and 17th century enhancements. (8)
Despite being a younger son, obliged to make his own way, Mr. Bouverie was part of the London set, with leased houses in Somerset Street and later Old Burlington Street, and together with his wife, Harriet, the pair would have been fully conversant with the fashionable taste in furniture. They were staunch supporters of the Whig party and Charles James Fox. Harriet, considered a great beauty of her day, who was painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds, was a political hostess; her particular friends included, Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire (1757-1806), and Frances Anne, Lady Crewe (1748-1818) of Crewe Hall, Cheshire (1748-1818). Mr. Bouverie is mentioned, albeit briefly, in Horace Walpole’s correspondence, as is Mrs. Bouverie who was to incur much society gossip when she bore an illegitimate daughter; the father was Lord Robert Spencer, son of the 3rd Duke of Marlborough, who she was to marry in 1811 following the death of the Hon. Edward Bouverie in 1810.
Delapré Abbey had undergone some extensive rebuilding during the second quarter of the 18th century by Mary Tate and Admiral Hardy, but it would seem that little was done in Edward Bouverie’s time. However, one of the largest rooms on the ground floor, part of the mid-18th century south range addition, which contained the main reception rooms, was the ‘Eating roome’, approx. 40 by 25 ft., where the present serving-table, urns and pedestal stands, together with the, now dispersed, wine-cooler and two smaller tables, possibly stood. The latter probably sold from Frank Partridge to the 7th Earl of Wilton, and later sold Sotheby’s London, 16th November 1984, lot 155, and were again with Frank Partridge in 1998 (Recent Acquisitions 1998, pp. 52-53). (9)
The present suite almost certainly passed by descent to Mary Helen Delapré (1866-1943), who sold it as part of the Delapré Abbey house contents in September 1941. The Jackson Stops & Staff sale listed the set as follows:
Lot 168 – AN OLD ENGLISH MAHOGANY SIDEBOARD, finely carved in relief with classic vases, husk festoons and oval paterae, in the style of Adam, the top with inlaid banding, standing on 6 square tapering legs, 7ft. 6in. long, 3ft. 6in deep.
Lot 169 – A pair of side tables en suite, 4ft. 3in. wide.
Lot 170 – THE PAIR OF OLD PEDESTALS of similar design each surmounted by CLASSIC URNS AND COVERS forming wine coolers, 22 in. square, 6ft. 3in. high.
Lot 170a – A WINE COOLER EN SUITE carved ram’s head and husk foliage, 24in. by 19in.
Although the furniture was recorded as separate lots, it was sold as one for 390 guineas, almost certainly to Frank Partridge; the whole set was photographed in 1942 and captioned, ‘Courtesy of Frank Partridge & Sons’ (Symonds, op. cit., pp. 16-17; Davis, op. cit., p. 75). It was evidently one of the more important lots of the three-day sale because it was chosen to illustrate the Jackson Stops & Staff advertisement for the sale in The Times on 11 September 1941. Post the sale, the set was discussed and illustrated in two articles by, respectively, R.W. Symonds and Frank Davis (Symonds, op. cit., pp. 15-16; Davis, op. cit., pp. 73-75).
However, there are few records in the archive to firmly identify the furniture prior to this 1941 date. An earlier inventory, dated 1915, does not list this set of dining-room furniture, but after the death of Mary Helen Bouverie’s brother, John Augustus Shiel, in 1905, the mansion was let to John Cooper, a local Boot and Shoe manufacturer, and presumably the more valuable items were removed at this date. (10) When he died the following year, the house remained empty until spring 1914. In these intervening years it seems likely the present set was sent to nearby Hardingstone House, a neighbouring family seat.
From September 1940 until 1948, Delapré Abbey was requisitioned by the War Office, and Mary Bouverie moved to Pond House, Duston. In 1941, all the furniture from the Abbey was auctioned at a three-day sale. The following year, Miss Bouverie sent for her bailiff and told him she wanted to die at Delapré Abbey. Rooms in the stable block were prepared for her and she died there on 20th January 1943, leaving the estate to her nephew, Major Uthwaite Bouverie, who subsequently sold it to the Northamptonshire County War Agricultural Committee.
Delapré Abbey is now being restored in association with the Heritage Lottery Fund.
JUDGE IRWIN UNTERMYER (1886-1973): BENEVOLENT AMERICAN COLLECTOR
The spectacular collection of British decorative arts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art is in large part due to the generosity of a single benefactor, Judge Irwin Untermyer, who served on the Museum’s board for some 20 years. By the time of his death in 1973, he had left a magnanimous gift of over two thousand works of art from an impressive collection that was refined and augmented over the course of his life. His collection was broad in scope and included English furniture, silver, needlepoint and porcelain but, as he said, he had ‘always regarded the English furniture as the outstanding part’ of his collection.
As part of the plan to renovate the Annie Laurie Aitken and Heathcote Galleries, the Metropolitan Museum of Art has been carefully reviewing its holdings of English decorative arts. The sale of objects such as this suite will make it possible to acquire works in categories that are less well-represented so when the Galleries are scheduled to reopen in 2018 they will more accurately reflect the stylistic development of British furniture from the 16th century up to around 1900, creating an engaging narrative of the artistry, industry and lifestyles of the British, from the grandest to the ‘middling classes’.
(1) G. Beard, C. Gilbert, Dictionary of English Furniture Makers 1660-1840, Leeds, 1986, pp. 589-598.
(2) C. Cator, ‘The Earl of Kerry and Mayhew and Ince: ‘The Idlest Osentation’, Furniture History, 1990, pp. 27-33.
(3) A. Coleridge, ‘English furniture supplied for Croome Court: Robert Adam and the 6th Earl of Coventry’, Apollo, February 2000, p. 10, fig. 5.
(4) H. Roberts, ‘Precise and exact in the minutest of things of taste and decoration’: The Earl of Kerry’s Patronage of Ince & Mayhew’, Furniture History, 2013, pp. 18-20, figs. 9-13.
(5) H. Roberts, ‘Nicely Fitted Up’: Furniture for the 4th Duke of Marlborough’, Furniture History, 1994, pp. 117-149.
(6) C. Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, London, 1978, vol. II, p. 192, fig. 350; vol. I, p. 201.
(7) Burke’s Peerage & Baronetage, pp. 2335-2339.
(8) Delapré Abbey’, Northamptonshire Past & Present, vol. II, no. 5, 1958, pp. 225-241; J. Wake, W.A. Pantin, Delapré Abbey, its History and Architecture, Northampton, 1959; J. Heward, R. Taylor, The Country Houses of Northamptonshire, Swindon, 1996, pp. 166-170.
(9) Recent Acqusitions 1998 Partridge Fine Arts PLC, London, 1998, pp. 52-53; Sotheby’s, London, 16 November 1984, lot 155.
(10) Inventory of Delapré Abbey, January 1915, Northampton Archive and Heritage Services, ZB 199/6.
This impressive and finely carved serving-table, with urns and pedestals en suite, part of a larger set of dining-room furniture also including a wine-cooler and a pair of smaller tables, were in the collection of the Bouverie family at Delapré Abbey, Northamptonshire, as recorded in 1941. The set was almost certainly made by the foremost London cabinet-making partnership of John Mayhew (1736-1811) and William Ince (1737-1804), in circa 1771-1772, probably for the Hon. Edward Bouverie (1738-1810), younger brother to William, 1st Earl of Radnor of Longford Castle, Wiltshire.
Mayhew & Ince
The customer ledger for the Hon. Edward Bouverie, held at Hoare’s Bank, London, shows that he was authorising payments to Mayhew & Ince from 6 Feb 1769 to 11 June 1772; the total amount came to the significant sum of £1,412.09 (C. Hoare & Co., London, customer ledger 79, f. 36, 38, 215, 216; ledger 81, f. 322; ledger 84, f. 395). In this period, no other furniture maker was recorded in the ledgers, with the exception of Gillows who were paid the negligible amount of £14.11. The likely creation date of the present set of dining-room furniture of 1771-1772, therefore, corresponds with Mayhew & Ince's contract as Edward Bouverie’s principal furniture suppliers.
The set demonstrates the partnership's promotion of the most advanced Neo-classical taste, and, undoubtedly, owes much to their collaboration with the country’s leading Neo-classical architect of the period, Robert Adam (1728-1792), notably, in the commission for the 6th Earl of Coventry at Croome Court, Worcestershire and Coventry House, Piccadilly (Beard, Gilbert, op. cit., pp. 592-596). (1) The firm faithfully reproduced Adam's furniture designs: sets of dining-room furniture, with a similar configuration, a serving-table flanked by a pair of urns and pedestals, a wine-cooler and mirror feature in The Works in Architecture of Robert and James Adam (two volumes published in 1773–1778 and 1779; a third volume published posthumously in 1822), including the set designed for William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield at Kenwood House, London (Vol. I, Plate VIII).
The form together with the classical ornament of this set is found on the documented furniture supplied by Mayhew & Ince between 1769 and 1772 to Francis Thomas Fitzmaurice, 3rd Earl of Kerry (1740-1818), for his house at Portman Square, London (Cator, op. cit., pp. 27-33). (2) While the Delapré Abbey set is carved, the ornamentation on Lord Kerry’s furniture is predominantly rendered in marquetry and ormolu. However, it is not unusual to find similarities between the firm’s carved and inlaid work. The bulbous shape of both sets of urns is virtually identical. Another comparable set, attributed to Mayhew & Ince, was formerly in the collection of the Bisshopp [sic]/de la Zouche family at Parham House, West Sussex, sold Christie’s, London, 21 April 1966, lots 134-137. This set is described in the 1826 Parham House inventory as, ‘a shaped side board mahogany top, carved frame painted, a wine-cooler, carved frame, a pair of pedestals and vases painted, a pier glass in a carved and painted frame (bordered), a pier table mahogany top and carved frame’ (West Sussex Record Office Ms. 1/5/2/2/4).
The variation of the carved ornamentation on this suite of furniture was undoubtedly intended to demonstrate the virtuosity of the firm; there are six different urn motifs, and seven diverse paterae. One of these urn motifs is also found on the frieze of a giltwood side table from Woodhall Park, almost certainly part of the same Mayhew & Ince commission that supplied the pair of pine pedestals in this sale (Lot 11).
The athenienne motif on the pedestals probably derives from a Renaissance marble relief by Simone Mosca at the Cesi Chapel, Santa Maria della Pace although this motif was probably disseminated in Europe by Joseph-Marie Vien’s La Vertueuse Athénienne (1762), circulated through an engraving by P. Filipart in 1765 (Coleridge, op. cit., p. 10, fig. 5). (3) This elongated athenienne motif manifests itself in the carved ‘Redwood’ basin and ewer stand made by Mayhew & Ince for the 6th Earl of Coventry in September 1767 (ibid., fig. 3 and p. 11). (3) This ornamentation additionally shares its form with a set of four carved giltwood torchères, also part of the Kerry commission (Roberts, op. cit., 2013, p. 23, fig. 14). (4) The characteristic block and spade feet with carved roundels of the serving-table likewise appear on a serving-table and pier table made by Mayhew & Ince for Lord Kerry. Furthermore, the interlaced pendant husk decoration on the tapering supports features on a mahogany cabinet, attributed to Mayhew & Ince, circa 1775, for the 4th Duke of Marlborough (Roberts, 1994, op. cit., fig. 26). (5)
A pair of pedestals with related marquetry urn and beribboned and entwined husk decoration, at present unattributed, is almost certainly by Mayhew & Ince. Now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, these too were formerly in the collection of Irwin Untermyer until 1964 (accession no. 64.101.1054, 1055).
The carved satyr-masks on the urns are closely comparable to those found on a wine-cooler, part of the dining-room suite supplied by Thomas Chippendale to Edwin Lascelles for Harewood House, Yorkshire, in circa 1771 (Gilbert, op. cit., vol. II, p. 192, fig. 350; vol. I, p. 201). (6) Their inclusion on the present urns suggests that this dining-room suite is almost certainly of a similar date; Mayhew & Ince on occasion emulated Chippendale’s furniture, and ‘William Ince, cabinet-maker’ was a subscriber to the first edition of the Director (1754).
The pedestal stands are almost identical to a pair, sold from the collection of Prince Littler (1901-1973) from Chestham Park, Sussex, Christie’s, London, 18 April 1977, lot 184, and later, ‘Fawley House’, Sotheby’s, London, 14-15 October 2003, lots 122, 121. These pedestals were accompanied by urns and a breakfront serving-table en suite; the latter, while less ornamented than the Delapré table, shares a similar breakfront form and carved vase antico with pendant husk garlands and oval paterae.
Interestingly, a set of four stools carved with the Bouverie crest were thought by the family to have been commissioned for Longford Castle by William Bouverie in 1765 (sold Christie’s, New York, 16 April 2002, lot 188). While traditionally ascribed to Chippendale, they correspond to a design by Mayhew & Ince in the Universal System of Household Furniture, 1762, pl. XXXIV, thus presenting a further possible link between the firm and the Bouverie family.
The Hon. Edward Bouverie and Delapré Abbey
The Hon. Edward Bouverie (1738-1810), MP for Salisbury, and Northampton, was the second son of Sir Jacob Bouverie, 1st Viscount Folkestone (1694-1761) and Mary Clarke of Hardingstone, Northamptonshire; his elder brother was William Bouverie, 1st Earl of Radnor and Baron Pleydell-Bouverie (1725-1776) of Longford Castle, Wiltshire. (7) The Bouverie (formerly Des Bouverie) family were Huguenots, who arrived in England in 1568; the family coat of arms, the double headed eagle, and motto resonate of the Huguenot plight, ‘My country is dear to me but more precious still is my freedom’. In 1764, Edward Bouverie married Harriet Fawkener, daughter of Sir Everard Fawkener, Ambassador to Constantinople. In the same year, he purchased Delapré Abbey, Northamptonshire, from the heiress, Mary Tate, and her husband, Admiral Charles Hardy, for £22,000. Delapré Abbey was a former Cluniac nunnery founded by Simon de Senlis, Earl of Northampton, in about 1125, with 16th and 17th century enhancements. (8)
Despite being a younger son, obliged to make his own way, Mr. Bouverie was part of the London set, with leased houses in Somerset Street and later Old Burlington Street, and together with his wife, Harriet, the pair would have been fully conversant with the fashionable taste in furniture. They were staunch supporters of the Whig party and Charles James Fox. Harriet, considered a great beauty of her day, who was painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds, was a political hostess; her particular friends included, Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire (1757-1806), and Frances Anne, Lady Crewe (1748-1818) of Crewe Hall, Cheshire (1748-1818). Mr. Bouverie is mentioned, albeit briefly, in Horace Walpole’s correspondence, as is Mrs. Bouverie who was to incur much society gossip when she bore an illegitimate daughter; the father was Lord Robert Spencer, son of the 3rd Duke of Marlborough, who she was to marry in 1811 following the death of the Hon. Edward Bouverie in 1810.
Delapré Abbey had undergone some extensive rebuilding during the second quarter of the 18th century by Mary Tate and Admiral Hardy, but it would seem that little was done in Edward Bouverie’s time. However, one of the largest rooms on the ground floor, part of the mid-18th century south range addition, which contained the main reception rooms, was the ‘Eating roome’, approx. 40 by 25 ft., where the present serving-table, urns and pedestal stands, together with the, now dispersed, wine-cooler and two smaller tables, possibly stood. The latter probably sold from Frank Partridge to the 7th Earl of Wilton, and later sold Sotheby’s London, 16th November 1984, lot 155, and were again with Frank Partridge in 1998 (Recent Acquisitions 1998, pp. 52-53). (9)
The present suite almost certainly passed by descent to Mary Helen Delapré (1866-1943), who sold it as part of the Delapré Abbey house contents in September 1941. The Jackson Stops & Staff sale listed the set as follows:
Lot 168 – AN OLD ENGLISH MAHOGANY SIDEBOARD, finely carved in relief with classic vases, husk festoons and oval paterae, in the style of Adam, the top with inlaid banding, standing on 6 square tapering legs, 7ft. 6in. long, 3ft. 6in deep.
Lot 169 – A pair of side tables en suite, 4ft. 3in. wide.
Lot 170 – THE PAIR OF OLD PEDESTALS of similar design each surmounted by CLASSIC URNS AND COVERS forming wine coolers, 22 in. square, 6ft. 3in. high.
Lot 170a – A WINE COOLER EN SUITE carved ram’s head and husk foliage, 24in. by 19in.
Although the furniture was recorded as separate lots, it was sold as one for 390 guineas, almost certainly to Frank Partridge; the whole set was photographed in 1942 and captioned, ‘Courtesy of Frank Partridge & Sons’ (Symonds, op. cit., pp. 16-17; Davis, op. cit., p. 75). It was evidently one of the more important lots of the three-day sale because it was chosen to illustrate the Jackson Stops & Staff advertisement for the sale in The Times on 11 September 1941. Post the sale, the set was discussed and illustrated in two articles by, respectively, R.W. Symonds and Frank Davis (Symonds, op. cit., pp. 15-16; Davis, op. cit., pp. 73-75).
However, there are few records in the archive to firmly identify the furniture prior to this 1941 date. An earlier inventory, dated 1915, does not list this set of dining-room furniture, but after the death of Mary Helen Bouverie’s brother, John Augustus Shiel, in 1905, the mansion was let to John Cooper, a local Boot and Shoe manufacturer, and presumably the more valuable items were removed at this date. (10) When he died the following year, the house remained empty until spring 1914. In these intervening years it seems likely the present set was sent to nearby Hardingstone House, a neighbouring family seat.
From September 1940 until 1948, Delapré Abbey was requisitioned by the War Office, and Mary Bouverie moved to Pond House, Duston. In 1941, all the furniture from the Abbey was auctioned at a three-day sale. The following year, Miss Bouverie sent for her bailiff and told him she wanted to die at Delapré Abbey. Rooms in the stable block were prepared for her and she died there on 20th January 1943, leaving the estate to her nephew, Major Uthwaite Bouverie, who subsequently sold it to the Northamptonshire County War Agricultural Committee.
Delapré Abbey is now being restored in association with the Heritage Lottery Fund.
JUDGE IRWIN UNTERMYER (1886-1973): BENEVOLENT AMERICAN COLLECTOR
The spectacular collection of British decorative arts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art is in large part due to the generosity of a single benefactor, Judge Irwin Untermyer, who served on the Museum’s board for some 20 years. By the time of his death in 1973, he had left a magnanimous gift of over two thousand works of art from an impressive collection that was refined and augmented over the course of his life. His collection was broad in scope and included English furniture, silver, needlepoint and porcelain but, as he said, he had ‘always regarded the English furniture as the outstanding part’ of his collection.
As part of the plan to renovate the Annie Laurie Aitken and Heathcote Galleries, the Metropolitan Museum of Art has been carefully reviewing its holdings of English decorative arts. The sale of objects such as this suite will make it possible to acquire works in categories that are less well-represented so when the Galleries are scheduled to reopen in 2018 they will more accurately reflect the stylistic development of British furniture from the 16th century up to around 1900, creating an engaging narrative of the artistry, industry and lifestyles of the British, from the grandest to the ‘middling classes’.
(1) G. Beard, C. Gilbert, Dictionary of English Furniture Makers 1660-1840, Leeds, 1986, pp. 589-598.
(2) C. Cator, ‘The Earl of Kerry and Mayhew and Ince: ‘The Idlest Osentation’, Furniture History, 1990, pp. 27-33.
(3) A. Coleridge, ‘English furniture supplied for Croome Court: Robert Adam and the 6th Earl of Coventry’, Apollo, February 2000, p. 10, fig. 5.
(4) H. Roberts, ‘Precise and exact in the minutest of things of taste and decoration’: The Earl of Kerry’s Patronage of Ince & Mayhew’, Furniture History, 2013, pp. 18-20, figs. 9-13.
(5) H. Roberts, ‘Nicely Fitted Up’: Furniture for the 4th Duke of Marlborough’, Furniture History, 1994, pp. 117-149.
(6) C. Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, London, 1978, vol. II, p. 192, fig. 350; vol. I, p. 201.
(7) Burke’s Peerage & Baronetage, pp. 2335-2339.
(8) Delapré Abbey’, Northamptonshire Past & Present, vol. II, no. 5, 1958, pp. 225-241; J. Wake, W.A. Pantin, Delapré Abbey, its History and Architecture, Northampton, 1959; J. Heward, R. Taylor, The Country Houses of Northamptonshire, Swindon, 1996, pp. 166-170.
(9) Recent Acqusitions 1998 Partridge Fine Arts PLC, London, 1998, pp. 52-53; Sotheby’s, London, 16 November 1984, lot 155.
(10) Inventory of Delapré Abbey, January 1915, Northampton Archive and Heritage Services, ZB 199/6.