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Lot Essay
A companion lady's secretaire, also inlaid with a boucher-inspired
medallion emblematic of La Poesie or the art of poetry, was illustrated in F.S. Robinson English Furniture, London, 1905, pl.CXLIX; and is discussed in W.P. Rieder Highlights of the Untermeyer Collection of Furniture, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1977, no.179. Their prototype would appear to be a secretaire that was sold from the J.Pierpont Morgan collection at Christie's London, 23rd March 1944, lot 199 (see L.Synge, Great English Furniture, London, 1991, fig. 156). Related marquetry features on an elliptical commode that has been attributed to William Moore (d.1815), who in 1782 advertised his "inlaid ware-room" in the Dublin Evening Post and drew attention to his long experience working in London with Messrs Mayhew & Ince, the celebrated cabinet makers of Golden Square (see F.L. Hinckley Hepplewhite, Sheraton and Regency Furniture, New York, 1987, fig. 344). The inlay relates to the work of Michelangelo Pergolesi, the Italian decorative artist employed by Robert Adam (d.1792). He issued Designs for Various Ornaments (1777-1801) and his work was also published in Original Designs in the Etruscan and Grotesque Style, 1814; and in J.A. Heaton's Furniture and Decoration in England During the Eighteenth Century, vol.I. 1888.
medallion emblematic of La Poesie or the art of poetry, was illustrated in F.S. Robinson English Furniture, London, 1905, pl.CXLIX; and is discussed in W.P. Rieder Highlights of the Untermeyer Collection of Furniture, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1977, no.179. Their prototype would appear to be a secretaire that was sold from the J.Pierpont Morgan collection at Christie's London, 23rd March 1944, lot 199 (see L.Synge, Great English Furniture, London, 1991, fig. 156). Related marquetry features on an elliptical commode that has been attributed to William Moore (d.1815), who in 1782 advertised his "inlaid ware-room" in the Dublin Evening Post and drew attention to his long experience working in London with Messrs Mayhew & Ince, the celebrated cabinet makers of Golden Square (see F.L. Hinckley Hepplewhite, Sheraton and Regency Furniture, New York, 1987, fig. 344). The inlay relates to the work of Michelangelo Pergolesi, the Italian decorative artist employed by Robert Adam (d.1792). He issued Designs for Various Ornaments (1777-1801) and his work was also published in Original Designs in the Etruscan and Grotesque Style, 1814; and in J.A. Heaton's Furniture and Decoration in England During the Eighteenth Century, vol.I. 1888.