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Lot Essay
This china-cabinet is a distinguished member of a group of case furniture associated with the royal cabinet-makers William Vile and John Cobb. This association and related attributions are made on the basis of stylistic comparison with a very few documented pieces of furniture, all of which were supplied to King George III or Queen Charlotte, and most of which remain in the Royal Collection.
The core stylistic element which provided the link between so many pieces of case furniture attributed to Vile is the foliated oval, of which the documented appearance is on the sides of the lower section of the bureau-cabinet made by him for Queen Charlotte in 1761 (A. Coleridge, Chippendale Furniture, London, 1968, pl. 13). Yet Geoffrey Beard has demonstrated how a very similar oval appears on the side of a mahogany table press supplied to Holkham by Benjamin Goodison in 1757 and he suggests that these ovals may have been supplied by a specialist carver to several cabinet-makers (The Dictionary of English Furniture Makers, Leeds, 1986, p. 924). However, the foliated oval is not the only feature shared by the group and, in several cases, including this cabinet, an attribution to Vile and Cobb resists all attempts to dismiss it entirely.
One specific stylistic feature of the documented Vile and Cobb furniture and this cabinet is the reed-gadrooned edge on the bottom section which is present on Queen Charlotte's jewel-cabinet (Coleridge, op. cit., pl. 12), her bureau cabinet (ibid., pl. 13), her bookcase (ibid.., pl. 14) and all of the nine or ten organ-roll cabinets (ibid., pl. 16). It is hard to argue that this is coincidental, particularly when the feature also appears on designs thought to be by Vile, such as the group of three drawings for low clothes presses which was sold at Christie's London, 30 March 1993, lot 28. Each has the same reed-gadrooned division between top and base.
The reed-gadrooned edge is also shared with the piece of furniture that is in many respects closest to this lot, the Blackwell Caird breakfront china-cabinet that was until recently in the Sir James Caird collection but of which the 18th Century provenance is still unknown. It has been frequently illustrated, most extensively by R.W. Symonds in Masterpieces of English Furniture and Clocks, London, 1940, pp. 51-56. The stylistic and constructional similarities between the two pieces of furniture are so close that they are almost certain to be by the same maker at the same time. They share not only the foliate carving at the angles of the glazed panels but also the very unusual feature of beaded carving actually surrounding the doors. Symonds linked this piece of furniture with an entry in the Royal Wardrobe Accounts for 'An exceeding Neat Mohogany Glass Case with Plate Glass Doors at Top and Wood Doors at Bottom' which shows the endurance of the Vile tradition but which is unproven.
A pair of cabinets with single glazed doors above a drawer and a door with foliate angles was sold from the Jack and Belle Linsky collection, Sotheby's New York, 21 May 1985, lot 156. They had identical handles to this china-cabinet on their long drawers.
The core stylistic element which provided the link between so many pieces of case furniture attributed to Vile is the foliated oval, of which the documented appearance is on the sides of the lower section of the bureau-cabinet made by him for Queen Charlotte in 1761 (A. Coleridge, Chippendale Furniture, London, 1968, pl. 13). Yet Geoffrey Beard has demonstrated how a very similar oval appears on the side of a mahogany table press supplied to Holkham by Benjamin Goodison in 1757 and he suggests that these ovals may have been supplied by a specialist carver to several cabinet-makers (The Dictionary of English Furniture Makers, Leeds, 1986, p. 924). However, the foliated oval is not the only feature shared by the group and, in several cases, including this cabinet, an attribution to Vile and Cobb resists all attempts to dismiss it entirely.
One specific stylistic feature of the documented Vile and Cobb furniture and this cabinet is the reed-gadrooned edge on the bottom section which is present on Queen Charlotte's jewel-cabinet (Coleridge, op. cit., pl. 12), her bureau cabinet (ibid., pl. 13), her bookcase (ibid.., pl. 14) and all of the nine or ten organ-roll cabinets (ibid., pl. 16). It is hard to argue that this is coincidental, particularly when the feature also appears on designs thought to be by Vile, such as the group of three drawings for low clothes presses which was sold at Christie's London, 30 March 1993, lot 28. Each has the same reed-gadrooned division between top and base.
The reed-gadrooned edge is also shared with the piece of furniture that is in many respects closest to this lot, the Blackwell Caird breakfront china-cabinet that was until recently in the Sir James Caird collection but of which the 18th Century provenance is still unknown. It has been frequently illustrated, most extensively by R.W. Symonds in Masterpieces of English Furniture and Clocks, London, 1940, pp. 51-56. The stylistic and constructional similarities between the two pieces of furniture are so close that they are almost certain to be by the same maker at the same time. They share not only the foliate carving at the angles of the glazed panels but also the very unusual feature of beaded carving actually surrounding the doors. Symonds linked this piece of furniture with an entry in the Royal Wardrobe Accounts for 'An exceeding Neat Mohogany Glass Case with Plate Glass Doors at Top and Wood Doors at Bottom' which shows the endurance of the Vile tradition but which is unproven.
A pair of cabinets with single glazed doors above a drawer and a door with foliate angles was sold from the Jack and Belle Linsky collection, Sotheby's New York, 21 May 1985, lot 156. They had identical handles to this china-cabinet on their long drawers.