Lot Essay
This neat, yet powerful, Regency desk, designed by the architect-designer, Charles Heathcote Tatham (1772-1842) in 1800, was at the very forefront of fashion for the Egyptian-revival. Commissioned by Frederick Howard, 5th Earl of Carlisle (1748-1825) for the magnificent Castle Howard in Yorkshire, its 20th century provenance is no less illustrious as, by 1923, it was in the fashionable collection of Sir Philip Sassoon (1888-1939), British politician, art collector, and society host, at Port Lympne, Kent.
TATHAM AND CASTLE HOWARD
In 1800, the architect-designer, Charles Heathcote Tatham inscribed his design for the present desk in ink ‘A Table executed for the Earl of Carlisle at Castle Howard’, and in pencil ‘1800’ (Victoria & Albert Museum, Prints & Drawings, E.1311.170-2001). The Egyptian-revival design was undoubtedly advanced for its time; its date possibly making it the first, and therefore the most important, example of such furniture in Britain. It certainly pre-dates by a few years other early exponents of the style: Thomas Chippendale the Younger at Stourhead, Wiltshire, described as ‘probably the first cabinet-maker in England to use Egyptian motifs on his furniture’, was incorporating Egyptian themes in 1804-5, and George Smith’s A Collection of Designs for Household Furniture and Interior Decoration (1804), which included Egyptian-revival designs for a sideboard, a library bookcase and a drawing room commode (Goodison, op.cit., Furniture History, p. 60; plates 92, 102, 119). Although Tatham travelled extensively in Rome and Italy in the late 18th century, a trip that culminated in his published work Etchings, representing the best examples of ancient ornamental architecture drawn from the originals in Rome, and other parts of Italy, during the years 1794, 1795 and 1796 (in itself a source-book of the Egyptian Revival and Neo-Classicism), he did not visit Egypt. However, he was probably inspired by Piranesi’s Egyptian ornamentation in his Diverse Maniere d’adornate I Cammini (1769). More significantly, in November 1795, Tatham visited the Museum of the Cardinal Borgia at Velletri in Italy. He described this experience in correspondence to his patron, Henry Holland (1745-1806), architect to the Prince of Wales at Carlton House: ‘This Prelate has in the course of 30 years, made the most rare & extensive collection of egyptian antiquities of any individual throughout Italy, and are so well regulated and disposed that an observer is enabled to trace the degrees of advancement in Art… The most interesting of all is that you have the several antiquities before you in their pure state such as they were found, unembarrased by the rude restorations of modern hands’ (Pearce, Salmon, op.cit., p. 50, no. 48). Egyptian antique fragments and Egyptian figures/idols (some of the latter reproduced by Italian craftsmen) also formed part of the consignment of antiquities Tatham was sending back from Italy to Henry Holland in England (ibid.). This desk was undoubtedly part of the much larger project by Tatham to create a new Gallery and Museum at Castle Howard; in 1811, he published the designs for these rooms in The Gallery at Castle Howard in Yorkshire, the seat of the Earl of Carlisle, K.G (see below).
The desk was almost certainly made to C.H. Tatham’s design by the cabinet-making firm of Marsh & Tatham; Thomas Tatham was Charles Heathcote’s brother and it seems highly likely the latter might refer his brother’s firm to Lord Carlisle. The 5th Earl’s Private Accounts show that large sums were paid out to ‘Edward Marsh & Tatham’ (and ‘Messrs. Marsh & Tatham’); £100 on 29 January 1800, £200 on 11 February 1801, £300 on 19 April 1803, £400 on 18 June 1804 and £100 on 14 December 1803 (Castle Howard Archives, J14/81). The same accounts also record payments to Charles Heathcote Tatham. The Castle Howard Archive additionally includes 'An Abstract of the Bills for the Works done in the Gallery & Museum from September 1801 to July 1802', in the hand of C. H. Tatham (London), to the 5th Earl of Carlisle (Yorkshire), 17 August 1802 (95/1/2); Thomas Tatham's work cost a total of £150, and 'An Abstract of the Artificers Accounts for the Works done & Materials used in the finishing of the North Gallery & Octagon at Castle Howard, Yorkshire 1811 & 1812', in the hand of C. H. Tatham (London), to the 5th Earl of Carlisle (Yorkshire), 12 September 1812 (95/1/4); the total cost of Thomas Tatham's work was £247 19s. The Tatham family’s association with Castle Howard had evidently been established some years earlier as shown by a design for a commode created for the 5th Earl for Castle Howard by the cabinet-maker, John Linnell (1729-96), cousin to C.H. and Thomas Tatham, and now in the Victoria & Albert Museum (https://bifmo.history.ac.uk/entry/linnell-john-1729-96. Accessed 29 May 2020).
SIR PHILIP SASSOON AND PORT LYMPNE
The desk next appears in the Drawing Room at Port Lympne, the stylish home of Sir Philip Sassoon, designed by Sir Herbert Baker in 1913-4, where it is photographed by Country Life in 1923 (‘Port Lympne – II. Kent’: The Residence of Sir Philip Sassoon’, Country Life, 26 May 1923, p. 719, figs. 10 and 11). Sassoon engaged the leading artists of the inter-war years – Rex Whistler, Glyn Philpot and Josef Maria Sert - to design extravagant and stylish interiors. During the summer season, visitors to Port Lympne would include an eclectic mix of actors, artists, sports personalities, Royalty/aristocrats and politicians - Charlie Chaplin, George Bernard Shaw, Edward, Prince of Wales and Mrs. Simpson, Sir Winston Churchill and his wife Clementine. It is interesting to note that the Dining Room frieze by Philpot represents Egyptian figures, and it is possible that the desk offered here was originally intended for that room. It is not certain how Sassoon acquired the desk but it may have been following the death of Rosalind, 9th Countess of Carlisle (1845-1921) in August 1921 when a significant amount of artworks was divided among her children. Sassoon's probate will dated 3 June 1939 shows that he left Port Lympne and its contents to his cousin, Mrs. Hannah Gubbay. Her collection was eventually bequeathed to the National Trust when she died in 1968. Alternatively, it is possible that the desk was left to Sassoon’s sister Sybil Cholmondeley, Marchioness of Cholmondeley (1894-1989), another beneficiary of his will.
We would like to thank the curatorial team at Castle Howard for their assistance in the compilation of this note.