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Lot Essay
Created by the leading English cabinet-maker of furniture for export, the Infantado suite is renowned as one of the most important groups of English furniture of the 18th century. The suite has been widely published and its pre-eminence is undiminished. The furniture historian R.W. Symonds wrote about a pair of cabinets from the suite in 1935, describing them as 'typical of the best English cabinet work'. Christopher Gilbert, thirty-six years later wrote of the 'outstanding importance' of the suite. Since then, several pieces from the suite have come onto the market and have entered major public collections around the world.
THE INFANTADO SUITE
These chairs, exotically coloured in Chinese red, are among the most celebrated of London furniture of the 18th century and are from the same palatial suite of Lazcano furniture that is represented in major museums, such as the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Temple Newsam House, Leeds, and the National Gallery of Victoria in Australia. These masterpieces from the Clerkenwell workshops of Giles Grendey (d.1780) were designed en suite with 'pier-set' card-tables, mirrors and secretaire-cabinets, probably for the Spanish castle of Lazcano. The Lazcano furnishings, comprising more than seventy-seven items, are the largest recorded suite of 18th century English furniture. Part of the suite was published in 1944, photographed in situ in the late 19th century in the Saloon at Lazcano Castle (Arteago, loc. cit.). This was after the majority of the suite had been acquired in 1930 by the Venice-based dealer Adolph Loewi. The suite comprised at least seventy-seven items, and included some fifty single chairs, twelve armchairs, two day-beds, two pairs of mirrors, a pair of candlestands, a card table, a pair of secretaire-cabinets and a tripod tea table.
THE ICONOGRAPHY
These chairs, of 'parlour' pattern, with caning for squab cushions, have serpentined frames japan-painted in trompe l'oeil red and gold to resemble the fashionable lacquer imports of the East India trading companies. Their so-called 'India' backs are crowned by feather-plumed 'Indian' heads displayed in flowered-trellis and bird-inhabited cartouches. Their form, as well as their ornament, represent the whimsical fusion of Chinese and Roman elements that was designated 'Modern' in the early Georgian period. Thus, Roman foliage issues from their columnar legs' voluted trusses, while the Roman nature deity's shell badge is displayed within the foliated and fretted lambrequin cartouches on their compass-fronted and reed-moulded rails. Venus's badge also appears on the reeded and pagoda-swept pedestals that support their 'vase' splats. The latter, which are scroll-fretted in the Chinese fan manner, display flower-festooned vignettes of gardens inhabited by Chinese figures. These large figures, enriched with silvering, are raised in bas-relief in the style discussed in the influential 17th century manual issued by George Parker and John Stalker and entitled, A Treatise of Japanning and Varnishing, being a complete discovery of those Arts..., 1688.
The imperial figures displayed on the armchairs correspond to those of the Victoria & Albert Museum's couch, which also features the bearer of the imperial canopy or parasol. Interest in such scenes had been aroused by illustrated accounts of embassies to China, but they also evoked the magnificent French Histoire du Roi de la Chine tapestries designed around 1700 at the Beauvais manufactory (Gerard C.C. Tsang, From Beijing to Versailles: Artistic Relations between China and France, Hong Kong, 1997). The tapestries in turn stimulated European taste for Chinese figurative wallpapers commissioned through the Parisian marchand-merciers, and also lead to publications such as Jean-Antoine Fraisse's Livre de Desseins Chinois, 1735.
GILES GRENDEY
The 'Cabinet-Maker and Chair-Maker' Grendey, who was described in 1740 as 'A great Dealer in the Cabinet Way', carried on a substantial export trade from Aylesbury House in St. John's Square, London. He was appointed Upper Warden of the Joiners' Company in 1747 and its Master in 1766. His son-in-law, John Cobb, was granted a court appointment as cabinet-maker to George III. That Grendey had a large export business has never been doubted. A fire that badly damaged his workshop in 1731 also destroyed furniture to the value of £1,000, that he 'had pack'd for Exportation against the next Morning' (Beard and Gilbert, loc. cit.). It is a tantalising possibility that the destroyed export furniture was intended for Spain and that the existing Lazcano suite is in fact its replacement.
THE DUKES OF INFANTADO
The Dukedom of Infantado ('con Grandeza de España') was created on 22 July 1475 by King Ferdinand VII and Queen Isabella, the 'Reyes Católicos', for Don Diego Hurtado de Mendoza y Figueroa, 2nd Marqués de Santillana and Conde del Real de Manzanares y Ricohombre de Castilla.
The castle of Lazcano is situated in Guipúzcoa, Northern Spain, and is associated with one of the oldest noble titles in Spain: in 1330 the head of the family was created Señor de la Casa de Lazcano con Grandeza de España. In 1697, Don Juan Antonio de Arteaga acquired the Castle of Lazcano and assumed the name Lazcano.
In 1891, on the death of the 15th Duke of Infantado, Don Andrés, a descendant of Don Juan Antonio de Arteaga of Lazcano inherited the Dukedom, after the King intervened and decreed that the ancient title of Infantado should pass to the Marquessate of Valmediano. It is this inheritance which brought the Dukes of Infantado to Lazcano, and which leads to the suggstion that the original patron was either the then Marqués of Valmediano for Lazcano itself, or to the Duke of Infantado and was brought to Lazcano after 1891.
What is known is that much of the suite was recorded in a late 19th century photograph and in 1930, the dealer Adolph Loewi bought seventy-two items. Prior to this, the complex manoeuverings of Spanish noble inheritance have provided an obfuscatory glaze to the earlier history. While it is tempting to assume that the suite was always at Lazcano Castle, it might be deemed an unlikely situation for the grandest, and largest known, suite of English export furniture. The Infantados, head of the powerful Mendoza family, were perfectly positioned in the early 18th century to embark on the commissioning of an ambitious suite of furniture. The possibility exists that the suite was commissioned in the 1730s by the 10th Duque del Infantado, perhaps for his daughter, the future 11th Duquesa, after her marriage in 1724, or on her accession in 1737. The Duquesa was one of the most important heiresses of Europe, with numerous titles and privileges, besides that of the ancient Dukedom of Infantado. Alternatively, if we assume that the suite is indiginous to the Palace of Lazcano, it may have been commissioned, c. 1740 by Don Juan Raimundo, 3rd Marqués de Valmediano (d. 1761), whose family later inherited the Dukedom of Infantado in 1891 (see above).
THE INFANTADO SUITE
These chairs, exotically coloured in Chinese red, are among the most celebrated of London furniture of the 18th century and are from the same palatial suite of Lazcano furniture that is represented in major museums, such as the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Temple Newsam House, Leeds, and the National Gallery of Victoria in Australia. These masterpieces from the Clerkenwell workshops of Giles Grendey (d.1780) were designed en suite with 'pier-set' card-tables, mirrors and secretaire-cabinets, probably for the Spanish castle of Lazcano. The Lazcano furnishings, comprising more than seventy-seven items, are the largest recorded suite of 18th century English furniture. Part of the suite was published in 1944, photographed in situ in the late 19th century in the Saloon at Lazcano Castle (Arteago, loc. cit.). This was after the majority of the suite had been acquired in 1930 by the Venice-based dealer Adolph Loewi. The suite comprised at least seventy-seven items, and included some fifty single chairs, twelve armchairs, two day-beds, two pairs of mirrors, a pair of candlestands, a card table, a pair of secretaire-cabinets and a tripod tea table.
THE ICONOGRAPHY
These chairs, of 'parlour' pattern, with caning for squab cushions, have serpentined frames japan-painted in trompe l'oeil red and gold to resemble the fashionable lacquer imports of the East India trading companies. Their so-called 'India' backs are crowned by feather-plumed 'Indian' heads displayed in flowered-trellis and bird-inhabited cartouches. Their form, as well as their ornament, represent the whimsical fusion of Chinese and Roman elements that was designated 'Modern' in the early Georgian period. Thus, Roman foliage issues from their columnar legs' voluted trusses, while the Roman nature deity's shell badge is displayed within the foliated and fretted lambrequin cartouches on their compass-fronted and reed-moulded rails. Venus's badge also appears on the reeded and pagoda-swept pedestals that support their 'vase' splats. The latter, which are scroll-fretted in the Chinese fan manner, display flower-festooned vignettes of gardens inhabited by Chinese figures. These large figures, enriched with silvering, are raised in bas-relief in the style discussed in the influential 17th century manual issued by George Parker and John Stalker and entitled, A Treatise of Japanning and Varnishing, being a complete discovery of those Arts..., 1688.
The imperial figures displayed on the armchairs correspond to those of the Victoria & Albert Museum's couch, which also features the bearer of the imperial canopy or parasol. Interest in such scenes had been aroused by illustrated accounts of embassies to China, but they also evoked the magnificent French Histoire du Roi de la Chine tapestries designed around 1700 at the Beauvais manufactory (Gerard C.C. Tsang, From Beijing to Versailles: Artistic Relations between China and France, Hong Kong, 1997). The tapestries in turn stimulated European taste for Chinese figurative wallpapers commissioned through the Parisian marchand-merciers, and also lead to publications such as Jean-Antoine Fraisse's Livre de Desseins Chinois, 1735.
GILES GRENDEY
The 'Cabinet-Maker and Chair-Maker' Grendey, who was described in 1740 as 'A great Dealer in the Cabinet Way', carried on a substantial export trade from Aylesbury House in St. John's Square, London. He was appointed Upper Warden of the Joiners' Company in 1747 and its Master in 1766. His son-in-law, John Cobb, was granted a court appointment as cabinet-maker to George III. That Grendey had a large export business has never been doubted. A fire that badly damaged his workshop in 1731 also destroyed furniture to the value of £1,000, that he 'had pack'd for Exportation against the next Morning' (Beard and Gilbert, loc. cit.). It is a tantalising possibility that the destroyed export furniture was intended for Spain and that the existing Lazcano suite is in fact its replacement.
THE DUKES OF INFANTADO
The Dukedom of Infantado ('con Grandeza de España') was created on 22 July 1475 by King Ferdinand VII and Queen Isabella, the 'Reyes Católicos', for Don Diego Hurtado de Mendoza y Figueroa, 2nd Marqués de Santillana and Conde del Real de Manzanares y Ricohombre de Castilla.
The castle of Lazcano is situated in Guipúzcoa, Northern Spain, and is associated with one of the oldest noble titles in Spain: in 1330 the head of the family was created Señor de la Casa de Lazcano con Grandeza de España. In 1697, Don Juan Antonio de Arteaga acquired the Castle of Lazcano and assumed the name Lazcano.
In 1891, on the death of the 15th Duke of Infantado, Don Andrés, a descendant of Don Juan Antonio de Arteaga of Lazcano inherited the Dukedom, after the King intervened and decreed that the ancient title of Infantado should pass to the Marquessate of Valmediano. It is this inheritance which brought the Dukes of Infantado to Lazcano, and which leads to the suggstion that the original patron was either the then Marqués of Valmediano for Lazcano itself, or to the Duke of Infantado and was brought to Lazcano after 1891.
What is known is that much of the suite was recorded in a late 19th century photograph and in 1930, the dealer Adolph Loewi bought seventy-two items. Prior to this, the complex manoeuverings of Spanish noble inheritance have provided an obfuscatory glaze to the earlier history. While it is tempting to assume that the suite was always at Lazcano Castle, it might be deemed an unlikely situation for the grandest, and largest known, suite of English export furniture. The Infantados, head of the powerful Mendoza family, were perfectly positioned in the early 18th century to embark on the commissioning of an ambitious suite of furniture. The possibility exists that the suite was commissioned in the 1730s by the 10th Duque del Infantado, perhaps for his daughter, the future 11th Duquesa, after her marriage in 1724, or on her accession in 1737. The Duquesa was one of the most important heiresses of Europe, with numerous titles and privileges, besides that of the ancient Dukedom of Infantado. Alternatively, if we assume that the suite is indiginous to the Palace of Lazcano, it may have been commissioned, c. 1740 by Don Juan Raimundo, 3rd Marqués de Valmediano (d. 1761), whose family later inherited the Dukedom of Infantado in 1891 (see above).