ATTRIBUTED TO WILLIAM HALLETT OR VILE AND COBB, CIRCA 1750

This bookcase forms part of a set of magnificent bookcases, lettered A-O, supplied for the library at Langley Park, Norfolk. Records at the Norfolk County Record Office (NCRO) indicate that several notable workshops supplied furnishings to Sir William Beauchamp-Proctor, 1st Baronet (1722–1773) at Langley Park, including William Hallett (d. 1781) and his disciple William Vile (1700/05-1767), who was in partnership with John Cobb (1715-1778) from 1751 to 1764. An existing 1748 bill from Hallett, as well as two 1754 bills from Vile and Cobb provide the strongest case for the authorship of the bookcases (NCRO, BEA 305/71, 305/79 and 305/45). The bills detail extensive work for William Beauchamp-Proctor, and the dates on the invoices, as well as several shared distinct stylistic elements, could place the library bookcase in either workshop. Hallett established his business at Great Newport Street, Long Acre, in 1730 and became the pre-eminent cabinet-maker in London. It is unknown when Hallett hired William Vile as a journeyman but after 1751 Hallett initially helped support the partnership of Vile and Cobb financially and the workshops remained close; by 1753 Hallett had moved his business next to Vile and Cobb on St Martin's Lane (G. Beard, C. Gilbert, Dictionary of English Furniture Makers 1660-1840, London, 1986, p. 924). The strong relationship between the two firms makes it difficult to distinguish between the early work attributed to Vile and Cobb and that of Hallett.
A cabinet signed by Hallett and dated 1763 (sold from the collection of William F. Reilly at Christie's, New York, 14 October 2009, lot 54) shares some identical borders as does a writing-table from the same date attributed to Hallett from the library at Temple Newsam (C. Gilbert, Furniture at Temple Newsam and Lotherton Hall, Leeds, 1998, pp. 662-3). A pair of bookcases attributed to Vile and Cobb sold anonymously at Christie's, London 5 December 1991, lot 131 has ornamental borders on the cornice and on the frieze in common with the Langley bookcases.
Langley Park, ten miles east of Norwich, was bought by George Proctor (d. 1744) from the Berney family in 1742. Proctor, a connoisseur and collector who had until then lived in Venice, employed the Norwich architect Matthew Brettingham (d. 1769), to build him a Palladian villa. Upon his death two years later, Langley passed to his twenty-two year old nephew and heir, Sir William Beauchamp, who assumed the name Beauchamp-Proctor when he inherited the estate and was awarded the baronetcy. He completed and enlarged the mansion and was largely responsible for building up the notable art collection at Langley. Works by artists such as Canaletto, Poussin and Van Dyck, some of which now reside in public collections, were complimented by equally refined interiors with furniture from London's leading cabinet-makers.