Lot Essay
The exotic bamboo-framed and ribbon-fretted china/collector's cabinet was originally one of a pair conceived by the Reverend Thomas Ferris of Dallington, Sussex and designed for him by J. Alderton, cabinet-maker of Brighton, in the Chinese fashion that had been introduced to King George IV's Marine Pavilion, Brighton by Frederick Crace (d.1859). Its Indian accroteria-fretted cornice corresponds to the Pavilion's copper kitchen-hoods, and is accompanied by china-shelves, whose silhouetted back-support is shaped after the Pavillion's Steine Front, likewise deriving from engravings in John Nash's Royal Pavilion, Brighton, 1826. The stand's imbricated feet are conceived as inverted 'palm tree' columns. The cabinet, which the Reverend Ferris had constructed following his visit to the Pavilion, bears a label naming J. Alderton as the maker, who is recorded at the '15 Upper Russell Street' address in the early 1820s (see The Dictionary of English Furniture Makers 1660-1840, Leeds, 1986, p. 7).
A Regency mahogany canterbury with the trade label of Thomas Alderton of 23-24 St. James's Street, Brighton, was sold anonymously, in these Rooms, 11 July 1991, lot 173. There appear to have been several cabinet-makers of that surname in Brighton in the early years of the 19th Century.
This lot and the following lot were bought from the 1930s onwards by Mr. Solomon Joseph Gubbay, by whom they were bequeathed to the present owner. Mr. Gubbay was a rope and jute merchant who travelled extensively and who lived in America for a period in the 1920s. He was a cousin of David Gubbay, who formed an extensive collection of furniture and porcelain with his wife Hannah, that was bequeathed to the National Trust in 1968. It is now displayed at Clandon Park, Surrey.
Pieces of furniture from the same collection have recently been sold in these Rooms, which clearly show Mr. Gubbay's eclectic taste. A George III blue-painted dresser (lot 196, 14 May 1992) and a George II rolled-paper and decorated mirror and pair of console tables en suite (lots 213 and 214, 6 April 1995) are good examples of his love for slightly unusual decorated furniture, like the present lot. Many of the pieces from the same collection show his love for unusual woods such as brown oak and burr elm, like the following lot in this sale. Among other pieces of furniture from the same collection, sold in these Rooms, are lots 81-83, 16 June 1988, lots 32, 69 and 72, 3 May 1990, lots 195-201, 14 May 1992 and lot 51, 6 July 1995.
A Regency mahogany canterbury with the trade label of Thomas Alderton of 23-24 St. James's Street, Brighton, was sold anonymously, in these Rooms, 11 July 1991, lot 173. There appear to have been several cabinet-makers of that surname in Brighton in the early years of the 19th Century.
This lot and the following lot were bought from the 1930s onwards by Mr. Solomon Joseph Gubbay, by whom they were bequeathed to the present owner. Mr. Gubbay was a rope and jute merchant who travelled extensively and who lived in America for a period in the 1920s. He was a cousin of David Gubbay, who formed an extensive collection of furniture and porcelain with his wife Hannah, that was bequeathed to the National Trust in 1968. It is now displayed at Clandon Park, Surrey.
Pieces of furniture from the same collection have recently been sold in these Rooms, which clearly show Mr. Gubbay's eclectic taste. A George III blue-painted dresser (lot 196, 14 May 1992) and a George II rolled-paper and decorated mirror and pair of console tables en suite (lots 213 and 214, 6 April 1995) are good examples of his love for slightly unusual decorated furniture, like the present lot. Many of the pieces from the same collection show his love for unusual woods such as brown oak and burr elm, like the following lot in this sale. Among other pieces of furniture from the same collection, sold in these Rooms, are lots 81-83, 16 June 1988, lots 32, 69 and 72, 3 May 1990, lots 195-201, 14 May 1992 and lot 51, 6 July 1995.