Lot Essay
William Gibbs Rogers (1792-1875) earned his reputation as an expert wood-carver, primarily by imitating and expanding the style of the famous 17th Century wood-carver, Grinling Gibbons (d.1721). He exhibited at the 1851 Great Exhibition where his carvings are described as 'studies from original fragments by Grinling Gibbons...One is a NET in and about which fish and shells are arranged with studied negligence; as a finish to the whole, sprigs and flowers of acquatic weeds are plentifully introduced. The other is a TROPHY consisting of a pheasant and a woodcock hung up together, and some birds by the same hand in which life is attempted to be portrayed' (The Crystal Palace Exhibition, Illustrated Catalogue, facsimile ed., New York, 1970, p. 9). Indeed, the above carvings compare directly with a picture surround by Gibbons, circa 1677, for Sudbury Hall, Derbyshire. (G. Beard, The Work of Grinling Gibbons, London, 1989.)
Rogers was patronized by Queen Victoria, who granted him a Civil List pension for the contribution in reviving the standard of ornamental wood-carving. He was awarded an important Royal Commission 'as they consider him as the best person qualified to be entrusted with those parts of the woodwork of the House of Lords in which great richness and delicacy of execution are required.' Similar carvings which originally hung at Bretton Park, Yorkshire, were sold by members of the Beaumont Family, in these Rooms, 11 April 1991, lots 107-109. They were originally supplied by Rogers in the early 1850s.
The Building News, 18 June 1858, defends Mr Rogers' trade as a serious wood-carver stating that 'he must take rank with the sculptor, for assuredly he embodies art in its higher developments'. The article comments on the recent successful sale at Christie, Manson and Woods, on 17 June 1858, and of his own collection of carvings as well as those by Gibbons and Verbruggen.
Rogers was patronized by Queen Victoria, who granted him a Civil List pension for the contribution in reviving the standard of ornamental wood-carving. He was awarded an important Royal Commission 'as they consider him as the best person qualified to be entrusted with those parts of the woodwork of the House of Lords in which great richness and delicacy of execution are required.' Similar carvings which originally hung at Bretton Park, Yorkshire, were sold by members of the Beaumont Family, in these Rooms, 11 April 1991, lots 107-109. They were originally supplied by Rogers in the early 1850s.
The Building News, 18 June 1858, defends Mr Rogers' trade as a serious wood-carver stating that 'he must take rank with the sculptor, for assuredly he embodies art in its higher developments'. The article comments on the recent successful sale at Christie, Manson and Woods, on 17 June 1858, and of his own collection of carvings as well as those by Gibbons and Verbruggen.