THE PROPERTY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTOR (LOTS 200-209) THE COBHAM HALL SUITE BY MAYHEW AND INCE (LOTS 200-202) The elegant George III chairs, with their herm-tapered legs and 'antique' medallion backs conceived in the French 'cabriolet' fashion, and sofas en suite, were commissioned for Cobham Hall, Kent following its aggrandisement by John Bligh, 3rd Earl of Darnley (d. 1781). Richly sculpted with bas-relief flowers and foliage in keeping with the elegantly stuccoed architecture and intricately carved mantelpieces, they reflect the Grecian fashion adopted in the 1770s by the Soho cabinet-makers and upholsterers, Messrs Mayhew and Ince. The firm advertised London 'taste' in the early years of George III's reign with a celebrated pattern-book, The Universal System of Household Furniture (1762). However, the wide variability and imaginative interpretation of classical design can preclude a signature style for undocumented pieces. At Cobham, the firm's contributions were significant. They had first been employed by Lord Darnley in 1761. Lord Darnley's account books over the following twenty years totalled almost four thousand pounds (G. Beard and C. Gilbert, eds., Dictionary of English Furniture Makers: 1660-1840, Leeds, 1986, p. 593). In addition to the present suite, the griffin-armed suite supplied for the Gilt Hall (and mentioned in the 1831 inventory) as well another supplied for the Blue silk Bedroom are also attributed to the firm. The 3rd Earl made extensive improvements to the house and several payments to George Shakespear for 1771-1774 support his role as architect as well as contractor at both Cobham and the London house in Berkeley Square, although the Rome-trained court architect Sir William Chambers (d.1796) makes an appearance among the payments. Upon his father's death in 1781, the 4th Earl brought on James Wyatt and extensive payments continued to Mayhew and Ince until 1803. The suite may be the 'Eighteen richly carved & gilt arm chairs stuffed in crimson damask' listed in the 1831 inventory in the Picture Gallery. Certainly when the suite was photographed in 1909 they were covered in a damask pattern. A set of six 'elbow chairs' was later sold by Sotheby & Co. by order of the trustees of the 8th Earl of Darnley, Cobham Hall, 23 July 1957, lot 442. The pair of sofas and at least six armchairs remained at the house and are illustrated in J. Cornforth, 'Cobham Hall, Kent - III', Country Life, 10 March 1983, p. 571, figs. 11 and 12. While Cornforth names these six armchairs, the fact that Partridge had a total of eight chairs of this model six years later almost certainly supports the larger number that did not leave Cobham until the 1980s. It is not known when any further chairs may have left Cobham. The chairs' golden frames reflect a return to the ancient form of interior decoration with 'tablets and medallions', as promoted by architectural publications such as The Ruins of the Emperor Diocletion's Palace, at Spalatro (1762) issued by 'Bob the Roman' Adam; and The Antiquities of Athens (1762) by James 'Athenian' Stuart. Their ornament evokes the poets' paradisical Golden Age and Ovid's Metamorphoses or 'Loves of the Gods' with 'Apollo' sunflowered and laurel-festooned tablets and wreaths of triumphal palm-flowers issuing from scrolled rinceaux of Roman acanthus. Originally dressed in silk 'tabouret' nailed in golden pearl-strings, their triumphal-arched backs, serpentined in hollows at the base, are crowned with Roman acanthus plumes issuing from the voluted scrolls of their reeded and hollow-fluted pilasters or uprights. The suite features unusual lacquered brass feet. Given the known collaboration between Mayhew and Ince and the celebrated Soho ormolu manufacturers, Boulton and Fothergill, it is tempting to ascribe these to the latter. While little evidence has surfaced regarding this working relationship, correspondence exists concerning the Duchess of Manchester's cabinet (designed by Robert Adam) and a chimneypiece and tripods for Lord Kerry (see L. Boynton (ed.), 'An Ince and Mayhew Correspondence', Furniture History, 1966, vol. II, pp. 23-36).

A PAIR OF GEORGE III GILTWOOD OPEN ARMCHAIRS

BY MAYHEW AND INCE, CIRCA 1775

細節

A PAIR OF GEORGE III GILTWOOD OPEN ARMCHAIRS
BY MAYHEW AND INCE, CIRCA 1775
Each with molded yellow silk brocade upholstered oval back centering a foliate spray flanked by padded out-scrolled arms with foliate-carved terminals and husk and leaf-carved supports over a serpentine seat covered in yellow silk brocade, above an anthemion and scrolling floral vinery-carved apron on square tapering legs carved with rosettes and trailing husks, on ormolu rosette-headed bun feet, seatframes with ink numbers 1 and 11 respectively and with cramp-cuts and batten holes, regilt, later casters (2)

來源

Part of a larger suite, comprising eighteen armchairs and a pair of sofas supplied by Mayhew and Ince to John Bligh, 3rd Earl of Darnley (d. 1781) for Cobham Hall, Kent.
Thence by descent at Cobham until after 1983.
Bought from Partridge, London in 1989.

出版

C. Latham, In English Homes, London, 1909, vol. I, p. XI (eight chairs and a settee shown in situ in the Long Gallery).
J. Cornforth, 'Cobham Hall, Kent - III', Country Life, 10 March 1983, p. 571, figs. 11 and 12 (a sofa and armchair shown in situ in the Great [or 'Gilt'] Hall).
Partridge Summer Exhibition Catalogue, 1989, no. 19, pp. 56-57 (a set of eight armchairs).

拍場告示

Please note that there is more information regarding the suite in the 1831 inventory at Cobham. The suite is most probably that located in the Picture Gallery listed as:
'Eighteen richly carved and gilt arm chairs stuffed with crimson damask
Four larger ditto stuffed in crimson damask
Four sofas to correspond
Three window stools to correspond'

The armchairs and settees in the sale (lots 200-202) are carved to the side rails which does not appear on the examples illustrated in the 1983 Country Life article. Thus this carving is either replaced or later in date.