拍品專文
This bureau-cabinet is attributed to Giles Grendey (d.1780), cabinetmaker of St. John's Square, Clerkenwell, London, based on its characteristic decoration and design which appears on documented examples from his workshop. Grendey's career was a long and prolific one and his trade in lavish japanned furniture is well-known. His extensive commission of scarlet and gilt japanned furniture, comprising approximately 80 pieces supplied to the Duke of Infantado's castle at Lazcano, Spain ranks among the most celebrated suites of eighteenth century English furniture. Many of the pieces from this suite are now in public collections.
A comparison of this cabinet to pieces from the Lazcano suite shows a striking similarity in decoration which combines large scale figures, fantastical beasts, shells, strapwork and diapered panels. The card table at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (reproduced in H.Huth, Lacquer of the West, 1971, pl.65-66) and chairs from the suite (one illustrated in C.Gilbert, Pictorial Dictionary of Marked London Furniture 1700-1840, 1996, p.248, pl.449) illustrate these similarities. The cabinet's serpentined cornice relates to bureau-cabinets from the suite which appear in a Victorian photograph of the Saloon at Lazcano (reproduced here).
Accounts in the Public Record Office indicate that England exported considerable quantitites of furniture to Spain and Portugal in the first half of the eighteenth century. Grendey clearly had a substantial export business as early as 1731, when a fire on his premises resulted in an enormous loss of £1,000 in furniture which he 'had pack'd for Exportation against the next Morning' (R.W.Symonds, 'Giles Grendey and the Export Trade of English Furniture to Spain', Apollo, 1935, pp.337-342). While this cabinet cannot be traced to the Lazcano suite, it would seem likely that it was intended for export to a continental patron.
The cabinet with its serpentined 'sarcophagus' chest, vase-capped pediment and brass mounts most closely relates to another example sold from the estate of Mrs. Diego Suarez, sold in these Rooms, 7 June 1980, lot 172 and again, Sotheby's New York, 25 January 1997, lot 221. Another of this form was sold Christie's Madrid, 16-17 May 1974 (illustrated in Christie's Review of the Season 1974, p.415). Other related japanned cabinets attributed to the Grendey workshop include an example sold in these Rooms, 21-22 April 1995, lot 375, and another reputedly from the Lazcano collection, sold Christie's London, 7 July 1988, lot 129.
A comparison of this cabinet to pieces from the Lazcano suite shows a striking similarity in decoration which combines large scale figures, fantastical beasts, shells, strapwork and diapered panels. The card table at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (reproduced in H.Huth, Lacquer of the West, 1971, pl.65-66) and chairs from the suite (one illustrated in C.Gilbert, Pictorial Dictionary of Marked London Furniture 1700-1840, 1996, p.248, pl.449) illustrate these similarities. The cabinet's serpentined cornice relates to bureau-cabinets from the suite which appear in a Victorian photograph of the Saloon at Lazcano (reproduced here).
Accounts in the Public Record Office indicate that England exported considerable quantitites of furniture to Spain and Portugal in the first half of the eighteenth century. Grendey clearly had a substantial export business as early as 1731, when a fire on his premises resulted in an enormous loss of £1,000 in furniture which he 'had pack'd for Exportation against the next Morning' (R.W.Symonds, 'Giles Grendey and the Export Trade of English Furniture to Spain', Apollo, 1935, pp.337-342). While this cabinet cannot be traced to the Lazcano suite, it would seem likely that it was intended for export to a continental patron.
The cabinet with its serpentined 'sarcophagus' chest, vase-capped pediment and brass mounts most closely relates to another example sold from the estate of Mrs. Diego Suarez, sold in these Rooms, 7 June 1980, lot 172 and again, Sotheby's New York, 25 January 1997, lot 221. Another of this form was sold Christie's Madrid, 16-17 May 1974 (illustrated in Christie's Review of the Season 1974, p.415). Other related japanned cabinets attributed to the Grendey workshop include an example sold in these Rooms, 21-22 April 1995, lot 375, and another reputedly from the Lazcano collection, sold Christie's London, 7 July 1988, lot 129.