.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
These magnificent ormolu-mounted cabinets, veneered in beautifully figured rosewood and displaying rose-flecked slabs of marble, are conceived in the French/Grecian fashion of George IV's Regency. They were commissioned by Henry George Herbert, 2nd Earl of Carnarvon (d. 1833), who inherited Highclere, Hampshire (now Highclere Castle) in 1811, and soon afterwards aggrandised his mansion in the Grecian manner assisted by Thomas Hopper (d. 1856), architect to the Prince Regent.
They are designed in the Louis Quatorze manner, with paired Salamonic-spiralled columns, stepped plinths wrapped by golden reed-gadroons, and cornices enriched with ribbon-guilloches and Roman acanthus. In addition, their rare coloured marbles are flanked by raised rosewood tablets, in the Grecian 'stepped' fashion favoured by the Liverpool cabinet-maker George Bullock (d. 1818).
Bullock, as owner of Anglesea's Mona Marble Works, helped introduce a fashion for British marbles in interior decoration', while trading from 1805 as 'General Furnishers and marble Workers' at Liverpool's 'Grecian Rooms' in partnership with William Stoakes. Bullock was also President of the Liverpool Academy, of which the Prince Regent became Patron in 1811. It is likely to have been the Prince's patronage that encouraged Bullock to open London premises, with the establishment in 1813 of his celebrated 'Mona Marble and Furniture Works' in Oxford Street. These Works formed part of the Tenterden Street, Hanover Square premises that he leased from the Earl of Carnarvon, so it seems likely that the Earl commissioned these book-cabinets from Bullock at this period.
They are designed in the Louis Quatorze manner, with paired Salamonic-spiralled columns, stepped plinths wrapped by golden reed-gadroons, and cornices enriched with ribbon-guilloches and Roman acanthus. In addition, their rare coloured marbles are flanked by raised rosewood tablets, in the Grecian 'stepped' fashion favoured by the Liverpool cabinet-maker George Bullock (d. 1818).
Bullock, as owner of Anglesea's Mona Marble Works, helped introduce a fashion for British marbles in interior decoration', while trading from 1805 as 'General Furnishers and marble Workers' at Liverpool's 'Grecian Rooms' in partnership with William Stoakes. Bullock was also President of the Liverpool Academy, of which the Prince Regent became Patron in 1811. It is likely to have been the Prince's patronage that encouraged Bullock to open London premises, with the establishment in 1813 of his celebrated 'Mona Marble and Furniture Works' in Oxford Street. These Works formed part of the Tenterden Street, Hanover Square premises that he leased from the Earl of Carnarvon, so it seems likely that the Earl commissioned these book-cabinets from Bullock at this period.