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Lot Essay
The inclusion of a pair of reeded cluster-columns banded with ormolu rings flanking the upper section of these glass-fronted Regency bookcases recall the work of cabinet-maker, Robert Herring & Son of Fleet Street, London who were also upholsterers, appraisers and undertakers (Christopher Gilbert, Pictorial Dictionary of Marked London Furniture, 1700-1840, London, 1996, p. 264, fig. 491). In business from 1769 to 1839 the longevity of these dates almost certainly covers the individual careers of father and son. A 'Robert Herring' subscribed to Sheraton's Cabinet Dictionary and was named in his list of master cabinet-makers, 1803 (Ed. Geoffrey Beard, Christopher Gilbert, Dictionary of English Furniture Makers, 1660-1840 Leeds, 1986, p. 423). Interestingly, Sheraton featured a design for a bookcase with related cluster-columns in his uncompleted pattern book, The Cabinet-Maker, Upholsterer, and General Artist's Encyclopaedia, published in 1804, and Robert Herring may have copied this ornamentation (the Encyclopaedia was intended to be in 125 parts, but the author only lived to see 30 published). Gillows of Lancaster and London was also supplying Gothic-style bookcases with related cluster column decoration in c. 1810 (Susan E. Stuart, Gillows of Lancaster and London 1730-1840, 2008, Volume I, p. 373, Plates 440-441).
Related bookcases include:
A Regency, mahogany, ebonized and gilt-bronze mounted library bookcase, circa 1810, by Herring & Son, sold Sotheby's London, 20 November 2007, lot 119, for £36,500 (inc. prem.).
Another comparable with cluster column decoration sold Christie's London, 24 November 2005, lot 147, for £27,600 (inc. prem.).
Related bookcases include:
A Regency, mahogany, ebonized and gilt-bronze mounted library bookcase, circa 1810, by Herring & Son, sold Sotheby's London, 20 November 2007, lot 119, for £36,500 (inc. prem.).
Another comparable with cluster column decoration sold Christie's London, 24 November 2005, lot 147, for £27,600 (inc. prem.).