POSSIBLY BY GEORGE OAKLEY, CIRCA 1825

細節

A PAIR OF GEORGE IV ORMOLU-MOUNTED EBONY SERPENTINE SMALL BOOKCASES
POSSIBLY BY GEORGE OAKLEY, CIRCA 1825
Each with a serpentine rectangular verde antico marble top with three-quarter gallery, above three adjustable shelves, flanked by canted angles with scrolled volutes, on foliate-clasped feet, one with a printed paper label to the reverse LONGLEAT
39¼ in. (99.5 cm.) high, 34¼ in. (87 cm.) wide, 10½ in. (27 cm.) deep (2)

來源

Supplied to Thomas, 2nd Marquess of Bath (1765-1837) for Longleat, Wiltshire and by descent at Longleat.
Furniture, Porcelain and Silver from Longleat; Christie's, London, 13-14 June 2002, lot 327.

出版

Inventory citations at Longleat:
1837 Inventory, p. 44, No. 64 Drawing Room, 'Pair Dwarf Book cases with Marble Tops Brass railed'.
1852 Inventory, p. 40, No. 64 Drawing Room, 'Pair of Dwarf Bookcases with Marble top, Brass railed'.
1869 Inventory, Drawing Room, 'A pair of openwork dwarf Bookcases with ormolu brackets and galleries and verde antique slabs'.
1896 Inventory (2nd Marquess' Heirlooms), f 86 r Four Room Passage, 'Pair of 3 ft shaped ebonised and gilt ormolu mounted dwarf bookcases with open shelves, green verde marble tops and open brass galleries'.

拍品專文

These serpentine cabinets, designed in the French 'antique' style, may well be the work of George Oakley (d. 1841). They relate to a cabinet-on-stand and an antiquarian secretaire which all appear to have been executed in the same workshop and sold in Christie's Longleat collection sale in 2002, lots 326 and 328. The stylized star-inlay with features on the cabinet-on-stand is characteristic of Oakley and can be seen, for instance, on the suite of furniture supplied in 1810 to Charles Madryll Cheere for Papworth Hall, Cambridgeshire (see P. Macquoid and R. Edwards, The Dictionary of English Furniture, London, rev. edn., 1954, vol. III, p. 202, fig. 42). The 2nd Marquess did patronize Oakley who supplied the exceptional suite of Grecian or 'antiquarian' oak seat-furniture invoiced in 1812 (two open armchairs from the suite were sold as lot 361 in the Longleat sale).

Granted a Royal warrant in 1799 after receiving a visit from Queen Charlotte and other members of the Royal family, upon which '...her MAJESTY, the Duke and Duchess of YORK, and the PRINCESSES, &c., highly approved of the splendid variety which has justly attracted the notice of the fashionable world' (Morning Chronicle, May 1799), Oakley enjoyed a long and successful career. Stretching from 1789-1819, he specialized in producing furniture in the Grecian taste for the Prince Regent and his circle.