IN PRAISE OF SATINWOOD I have enjoyed a love-affair with satinwood for many years now - its very name is so evocative of sumptuousness. It conjures up the golden colour and lustre of the wood and the "West and East Indies" from whence it came. It thus gave me the greatest pleasure when I was asked to write some words on this most personal collection, the fruit of an Anglo-American marriage, which includes many carefully selected examples of pieces of satinwood furniture. Satinwood has been collected and cherished on both sides of the Atlantic since the turn of the 20th Century. The History of English Furniture, which Percy Macquoid compiled between 1904 and 1908, was the first serious work to be published on the subject. The last of the four volumes, The Age of Satinwood, was published in 1908 simultaneously in London by Lawrence and Bullen Ltd. and in New York by the celebrated house of G.P. Putnams' Sons. Thus by 1908 English Neoclassical furniture, particularly satinwood, was being collected, studied and appreciated both in the United Kingdom and the United States. Since then, happily, we have all never looked back and the formation of this collection epitomises our shared heritage. West Indian satinwood (Fagara spp.) is indigenous to many of the Caribbean islands particularly Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Santo Domingo and the Bahamas: East Indian satinwood (Chloroxylon Swietenia) was obtained, in the main, from Sri Lanka and the South of India. F. Lewis Hinckley in Historic Cabinet Woods writes that West Indian satinwood "when freshly cut is pale yellow or yellowish tan in colour, taking on richer or mellower tones in the lustrous surfaces of old furniture. The texture is fine and uniform, the grain either straight or irregular, in the latter instance accounting for handsome mottle and roe figures." On the other hand, whilst describing East Indian satinwood, he writes "the wood varies in colour from light to dark golden-yellow tones. It is fine and uniform in texture, with obscure pores and rays The grain is narrowly interlocked, producing plain contrasting stripes, or broken stripes, in quartered material, usually accompanied by cross mottles." Thomas Sheraton, in his Cabinet Directory of 1803 recommended mahogany, rosewood and satinwood for particular uses. A quote from the Cabinet-Maker's Assistant underlines the importance of the export of satinwood from Santo Domingo to England after the expulsion of the French from the island during the opening years of the 19th century: The black population, disinclined to the continuous labour of the plantations, allowed these to go to waste, and had recourse to the spontaneous supply of commodities for export furnished by their almost interminable forests. Amongst the other woods thus brought into notice, satinwood was exported in large quantities into Britain, and rapidly rose in general favour. Close in the grain, of a pale yellow colour, and elegantly veined, it presented an agreeable variety to the more sombre coloured woods, of which drawing-room furniture had been commonly manufactured, and from a number of years it was extensively used in preference. Apart from the intensely pleasing and striking colour of the wood, why is satinwood furniture so aesthetically rewarding? For me it is the restrained economy of design combined with straight lines and neoclassical decoration, whether of marquetry inlay, painted decoration or carved detail. Of course examples of satinwood furniture formed a relatively low proportion of the very considerable amount of furniture which was produced in the British Isles during the last three decades of the 18th Century and the opening decade of the 19th Century. Gilded, painted and mahogany and rosewood pieces formed the majority. The collection under discussion, which has been formed with discerning eyes and careful thought and a taste for fine examples of English Neoclassical furniture has, until recently, graced "Miss Emily Trevor's Townhouse" on East 90th Street, built by the classical revivalist architect Mott B. Schmidt in 1926. Mark Alan Hewitt in his Architecture of Mott B. Schmidt writes "This house contains the finest extant interiors of any Schmidt commission, almost unchanged from the day it was built." This says it all and what a challenge it must have been to hunt for and select the furniture and furnishings to complement these splendid rooms. What a joy too to face this challenge and to embrace it so stylishly and successfully. The fun and thrill of the chase was directed to hunting down pieces supplied by, or which can be attributed to, leading London cabinet-makers such as Thomas Chippendale, John Cobb, John Linnell, William Mayhew and John Ince. Great attention was also paid to provenance, English and American - a matter of considerable importance. The former includes, the 1st Viscount Leverhulme, from the Hill, Hampstead, the 4th Viscount Midleton, from Peper Harow, Surrey, the Hon. E.A. Wallace and Madryn Castle, Caernarvonshire: the latter celebrated collectors George D. Widener, Douglas Dillon and Marc Haas. Apart from its concentration on satinwood, the collection is rich in examples of case-furniture with marquetry inlaid decoration. Foremost amongst these are a commode from the Leverhulme collection with a lengthy New York provenance, being offered at the Anderson Galleries in the great 1926 sale, and a pair of commodes of unusual canted form which are attributed to Mayhew and Ince, who were responsible for a great number of pieces in the collection. A cylinder bureau is intricately inlaid with floral marquetry decoration and a pembroke table with the Masterman crest and coat-of-arms, a most rare refinement. For fans of English marquetry inlay of this period, this is a treat not to be missed. It makes an interesting comparison with the finest French marquetry of the time too. It is fulfilling and rewarding to form a collection such as this and in time, inevitably, sad to disperse it, but the pleasure that has been reaped by so many from it, is being passed to others for their pleasure and enjoyment in turn. Anthony Coleridge MAYHEW AND INCE This concise and well chosen collection of furniture attributed to Mayhew and Ince neatly encapsulates many of the features which have been identified as idiosyncratic of their oeuvre. The remarkable array of satinwood and marquetry pieces brilliantly illustrates the firm's development of what could be regarded as their principal strength - dazzling displays of elaborately detailed marquetry, often illusionistic, on a lustrous satinwood ground. In its decoration and profile of the frieze the Pembroke table (Lot 254) from the Marc Haas Collection echoes the series of serpentine commodes of the late 1760s, while the distinctive pair of commodes (Lot 251) perfectly demonstrate the firm's neat, geometric style of the 1770s, and combine many of the firm's identifying characteristics: ormolu wreath handles, ebonised borders and finely engraved marquetry, optically treated. The inlaid paterae and therm legs are repeated in carved mahogany on the handsome and perfectly proportioned pair of hall chairs probably supplied to the 4th Viscount Midleton for Peper Harow (Lots 220-222) and the Brougham side table (Lot 223). The superb Pembroke table with the Masterman crest (Lot 250) bears noble witness to the heights achieved by the firm's marqueteurs in the late 1770s and early 1780s. The leitmotifs of husk-encircled wheel patterns and paterae appear on the Widener commode, which is of exactly the same profile as one supplied to the Dowager Duchess of Beaufort, circa 1780. This collection provides a fascinating survey of Mayhew and Ince's work from the late 1760s to the mid 1780s and their creative versatility is clearly demonstrated by the ingenious manner in which the leitmotifs recur in different guises and combinations. Charles Cator A COLLECTION FROM A NEW YORK TOWNHOUSE (LOTS 213-263) This remarkable collection of late Georgian furniture was assembled in one of New York's landmark treasures, the Upper East Side townhouse designed by renowned architect Mott B. Schmidt for Miss Emily Trevor in 1926. Modelled in the manner of a Georgian Mayfair townhouse, this elegant building contains the finest extant interiors of any Schmidt commission. Its formal reception rooms feature plaster relief-molded ceilings and original Italian paintings, while the elegant niches in the drawing room are derived from Robert Adam's Great Room at Kenwood House in Hampstead Heath. Each piece in the collection was carefully chosen for its refined design and quality craftsmanship, thus paying tribute to its elegant neo-classical surroundings.

A WILLIAM IV GILTWOOD OVERMANTEL MIRROR

CIRCA 1835, THE CRESTING PROBABLY ASSOCIATED

细节

A WILLIAM IV GILTWOOD OVERMANTEL MIRROR
Circa 1835, the cresting probably associated
The eagle cresting flanked by rosette-scrolls above a triple-form plate within a spirally-fluted and acanthus-wrapped frame with rosette blocks to the upper corners, regilt
31½ in. (80 cm.) high, 50¼ in. (128 cm.) wide

来源

Acquired with the house.