Lot Essay
This pair of medal-cabinets have a temple facade buttressed by fluted and reed-gadrooned volutes that are enriched with Roman acanthus like their Vitruvian ribbon-scrolled plinth, while their dentilled 'Tuscan' pediments were intended to display a bust of an ancient worthy. Their Roman style reflects the architecture promoted by connoisseurs such as Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington and by publications such as James Gibbs' Book of Architecture, 1728, while their form relates to French library-desk cartonniers such as featured in engravings of the work of André-Charles Boulle (d.1732), as well as a London-engraved pattern for a medal-cabinet plagiarised from a Paris design, published in 1740. This appeared in The City and Country Builder's and Workman's Treasury of Designs, issued by the architect Batty Langley, whose Five Orders of Architecture, enlarged and engraved by Edward Hoppus in 1738 had illustrated a 'Tuscan' bookcase with this pattern of pediment. In addition, their richly fretted frieze, which corresponds to 'modern' patterns published by Thomas Chippendale (d.1779) in his Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director of 1754-63, also relate to patterns published in 1738 in Langley's Builders Complete Chest-Book and Builder's Complete Assistant.
These medal-cabinets, almost certainly orginally supported on stands, are directly related to George II's 'Grand Medal Case', which is now divided between the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Although it is not known who executed 'His Majesty's Medal Case', Messrs. Vile and Cobb of St. Martin's Lane, were paid £80 on 25 March 1761 for:
'3 different pieces of work fitted in between the legs of His Majesty's Grand Medal Case with Carved Dooers and ends and a new Sub plinth to do on a frame'.
It is, therefore, extremely pertinent that John, 3rd Earl of Bute was instrumental in securing George, Prince of Wales, later George III's patronage of William Vile. In the postscript of a letter to Bute of 13 November 1759, the Prince wrote 'N.B. I forgot to mention yesterday that Lord Bathurst (Treasurer to the Prince of Wales) recommended Trotter for upholsterer: I told him I intended that for Vile and had spoken to you about it. Thus, although the Royal Warrant was only granted to Messrs. Vile and Co. in January 1761, Vile had in fact already supplied furniture to the Prince through the agency of Lord Bute, as payments from Bute's Separate Account at Messrs. Campbell and Coutts, which he administered on behalf of the Prince, testify, Messrs. Vile & Co. receiving £702 on the 16 May 1760 (F. Russell, loc. cit., forthcoming, p.38
Bute continued to patronise Vile, and it was to the latter that he turned for 'a good mahogany table', paid for on the Royal Account, when furnishing his new Office in 1763( Ibid.,p.53, p.36).
That the Prince adopted his Tutor Bute's taste is testified in every field - from silver and old master pictures, architectural drawings and furniture, to scientific instruments and medals. It was a voracious appetite for the latter that undoubtedly inspired the commission of these medal-cabinets and it was the appointment by Bute of Richard Dalton, as Librarian to the Prince in 1755 that no doubt provided the impetus. On his remarkably successful tour of 1758, Dalton scoured Italy for pictures, architectural drawings, intaglio's and medals on behalf of the Prince, with other pickings passing to both Lord Bute and Lord Grosvenor. Amongst Dalton's quarries was the collection of intaglios of Baron Stosch, comprising of 3,505 intaglios, together with 2,584 drawings after engraved stones and 28,000 casts of others in comparable collections. Ultimately, after protracted negotiations, only a small proportion of the Stosch Collection was bought - recorded by a payment from the separate account of £325 105 on 14 January 1760. However, Bute's personal numismatic ambitions were by no means always frustrated, as is revealed by the draft of £60 on 28 December for medals (Ibid.,p.33).
The differing constructions of each medal-case, along with their alterations, clearly reflect Bute's ever-expanding collection of medals and can be directly parallelled in the 'Grand Medal Case', (discussed in D. Shrub, 'The Vile Problem', Victoria and Albert Museum Bulletin, October 1965, pp. 26-35). The latter, its cabinets buttressed by British Lions emerging from Roman foliage, are of richer design than the Bute cabinets and it is, therefore, certainly possible that the latter were executed for Lord Bute in the mid-1750's and actually formed the prototype for the Prince's Medal Case. However, as Bute's financial situation did not allow for excessive expenditure until the death of his father-in-law, Edward Wortley Montagu in 1761, it is certainly possible that the Bute medal-cabinets were commissioned by either Frederick, Prince of Wales or his son, the future King George II, Bute's protegé.
While Vile's name has always been linked with 'His Majesty's Medal Case', this connection appears to rest purely upon the alterations undertaken by Vile to allow for an expanding collection in 1761. It is, therefore, entirely possible that both Bute and 'His Majesty's Medal Case' were actually executed under the direction of Vile's 'Master' William Hallett (d.1781) of Great Newport Street, cabinet-maker to Princess Augusta. Vile was appointed to Hallet as a Journeyman and the alterations that these medal-cabinets have undergone are completely consistent with Vile's documented Royal Commissions for refinishing earlier pieces - even harpsichords, such as that by Goodison of 1735 which Vile transformed into a cabinet for Queen Charlotte in 1763.
A closely related medal-cabinet, with Vitruvian-scroll panelled drawer and gadrooned voluted sides, is in the Irwin Untermyer Collection (J. Gloag, Y. Hackenbroch, English Furniture with some furniture of other Countries in the Irwin Untermyer Collection, Norwich, 1958, figs. 287-9).
These medal-cabinets, almost certainly orginally supported on stands, are directly related to George II's 'Grand Medal Case', which is now divided between the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Although it is not known who executed 'His Majesty's Medal Case', Messrs. Vile and Cobb of St. Martin's Lane, were paid £80 on 25 March 1761 for:
'3 different pieces of work fitted in between the legs of His Majesty's Grand Medal Case with Carved Dooers and ends and a new Sub plinth to do on a frame'.
It is, therefore, extremely pertinent that John, 3rd Earl of Bute was instrumental in securing George, Prince of Wales, later George III's patronage of William Vile. In the postscript of a letter to Bute of 13 November 1759, the Prince wrote 'N.B. I forgot to mention yesterday that Lord Bathurst (Treasurer to the Prince of Wales) recommended Trotter for upholsterer: I told him I intended that for Vile and had spoken to you about it. Thus, although the Royal Warrant was only granted to Messrs. Vile and Co. in January 1761, Vile had in fact already supplied furniture to the Prince through the agency of Lord Bute, as payments from Bute's Separate Account at Messrs. Campbell and Coutts, which he administered on behalf of the Prince, testify, Messrs. Vile & Co. receiving £702 on the 16 May 1760 (F. Russell, loc. cit., forthcoming, p.38
Bute continued to patronise Vile, and it was to the latter that he turned for 'a good mahogany table', paid for on the Royal Account, when furnishing his new Office in 1763( Ibid.,p.53, p.36).
That the Prince adopted his Tutor Bute's taste is testified in every field - from silver and old master pictures, architectural drawings and furniture, to scientific instruments and medals. It was a voracious appetite for the latter that undoubtedly inspired the commission of these medal-cabinets and it was the appointment by Bute of Richard Dalton, as Librarian to the Prince in 1755 that no doubt provided the impetus. On his remarkably successful tour of 1758, Dalton scoured Italy for pictures, architectural drawings, intaglio's and medals on behalf of the Prince, with other pickings passing to both Lord Bute and Lord Grosvenor. Amongst Dalton's quarries was the collection of intaglios of Baron Stosch, comprising of 3,505 intaglios, together with 2,584 drawings after engraved stones and 28,000 casts of others in comparable collections. Ultimately, after protracted negotiations, only a small proportion of the Stosch Collection was bought - recorded by a payment from the separate account of £325 105 on 14 January 1760. However, Bute's personal numismatic ambitions were by no means always frustrated, as is revealed by the draft of £60 on 28 December for medals (Ibid.,p.33).
The differing constructions of each medal-case, along with their alterations, clearly reflect Bute's ever-expanding collection of medals and can be directly parallelled in the 'Grand Medal Case', (discussed in D. Shrub, 'The Vile Problem', Victoria and Albert Museum Bulletin, October 1965, pp. 26-35). The latter, its cabinets buttressed by British Lions emerging from Roman foliage, are of richer design than the Bute cabinets and it is, therefore, certainly possible that the latter were executed for Lord Bute in the mid-1750's and actually formed the prototype for the Prince's Medal Case. However, as Bute's financial situation did not allow for excessive expenditure until the death of his father-in-law, Edward Wortley Montagu in 1761, it is certainly possible that the Bute medal-cabinets were commissioned by either Frederick, Prince of Wales or his son, the future King George II, Bute's protegé.
While Vile's name has always been linked with 'His Majesty's Medal Case', this connection appears to rest purely upon the alterations undertaken by Vile to allow for an expanding collection in 1761. It is, therefore, entirely possible that both Bute and 'His Majesty's Medal Case' were actually executed under the direction of Vile's 'Master' William Hallett (d.1781) of Great Newport Street, cabinet-maker to Princess Augusta. Vile was appointed to Hallet as a Journeyman and the alterations that these medal-cabinets have undergone are completely consistent with Vile's documented Royal Commissions for refinishing earlier pieces - even harpsichords, such as that by Goodison of 1735 which Vile transformed into a cabinet for Queen Charlotte in 1763.
A closely related medal-cabinet, with Vitruvian-scroll panelled drawer and gadrooned voluted sides, is in the Irwin Untermyer Collection (J. Gloag, Y. Hackenbroch, English Furniture with some furniture of other Countries in the Irwin Untermyer Collection, Norwich, 1958, figs. 287-9).