Lot Essay
The Captain Manners referred to on the label is most probably Charles George Edmund John Manners (1858-1911), a Captain in the Grenadier Guards, and eldest son of Lord George Manners of Cheveley Park, Cambridgeshire. Lord George Manners (1820-1874), youngest brother of the 4th Duke of Rutland, married in 1855 Adeliza Matilda (died 1904), youngest daughter of the 13th Duke of Norfolk. It is possible that the bureau came from Cheveley, which passed into the Manners family on the marriage of Lady Frances Seymour, daughter of the 6th Duke of Somerset, to the Marquess of Granby (died 1770), eldest son of the 3rd Duke of Rutland. Cheveley was sold between 1892 and 1896, and later demolished, and the contents were presumably passed to Belvoir Castle as all of Lord George Manners' children died without issue. The brand on the underside of the bureau was probably applied in the mid-19th Century by the dealer and interior decorator Morant who is recorded at 91 New Bond Street from 1842. Possibly this bureau was acquired from him by Lord George Manners either at the time of his wedding in 1855, or as part of the alterations and additions at Cheveley carried out by William Burn in 1858. Alternatively, the bureau may only have been with Morant for restorations.
There is a bureau brisé of exactly this form retaining the original base in the collection of the Duke of Marlborough in the Staterooms at Blenheim Palace (The Connoisseur Year Book, 1951, p.16, pl.xii). The Blenheim bureau rests on two carved giltwood mouldings, each with scrolled X-shaped supports decorated with lambrequins on ebony bun feet headed by square ormolu collars. Inlaid en première partie with red tortoiseshell, it has identical side panels and a virtually identical front to this bureau. The top is inlaid with the arms of the Duc d'Aumont (16 - ). Two other table tops identical to the Blenheim desk with the Duc d'Aumont's arms but en contre partie are known, both mounted on 19th Century bases. One, from the Wernher Collection, Luton Hoo (no. 386) was sold in these Rooms, 14 April 1983, lot 86, and the other was sold Christie's, New York, 1 November 1990, lot 166. This group is now attributed to Pierre Gole on stylistic grounds (information kindly supplied by J.N. Ronfort).
Two other rectangular panels, both en première partie are known, virtually identical to the top of this bureau. One, from the collection of the Earl of Warwick was sold Christie's Geneva, 18 November 1974, lot 55. The other from the collection of the Marquis of Lincolnshire, Carrington House, Whitehall, London, is illustrated mounted as the central panel of a breakfront side cabinet probably constructed in the late 18th Century (M. Harris, Catalogue, 1920). This group is attributed to Pierre Gole on grounds of stylistic similarities to other pieces now firmly attributed to this important Court ébéniste, namely a bureau in the collection of the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry, Boughton House and a table and pair of gueridons at Knole. Professor Lunsingh Scheurleer has identified the Boughton bureau as almost certainly the bureau supplied to Louis XIV for Versailles described in a bill of 1672. It would seem that Gole pioneered and virtually monopolised the manufacture of such bureaux, his first being mentioned by the Comptes de Menus Plaisirs in 1669. Between this date and his death in 1684, a period during which he worked more or less continually on commissions for Versailles, he is thought to have made more than twenty-five bureaux. The Knole table and gueridons are thought to have been presented by Louis XIV to Charles Sackville, Ambassador to Paris from 1669 to 1670. This bureau shares the characteristic use of scrolling foliage and balance of decoration as seen on the Boughton and Knole examples. This is also linked with a drawing for the parquet of the Cabinet doré of the Dauphin at Versailles for which Gole was paid 7500 livres in 1682 and which very much displays Gole's style (Th.H. Lunsingh Scheurleer, 'Pierre Gole, ébéniste du Roi Louis XIV', Burlington Magazine, June 1980, pp.380-395)
If one takes the inventory of Gole's workhhop following his death in 1684 as an indicator of what he was making and in what proportions, the use of brass and pewter marquetry would appear to have been rare in his oeuvre. But of a total of about two hundred pieces only six appear to have had this form of decoration and they are the most expensive items in the inventory.
Gole enjoyed close links with the celebrated Marot dynasty of designers. One of his sisters married Jean Marot, architect to the Bâtiments du Roi and he was probably instrumental in Gole originally gaining his royal commissions. The decoration on some of Gole's furniture reflects the designs of Daniel Marot, his nephew, who in the early part of his career was very active and highly regarded in Paris. Elements of the design of the top of this bureau appear in a set of engravings for bed testers and coverlets by Daniel Marot, now in the Bibliothèque des Arts Décoratifs (The J. Paul Getty Museum Journal, vol.14, 1986, p.93).
There is a bureau brisé of exactly this form retaining the original base in the collection of the Duke of Marlborough in the Staterooms at Blenheim Palace (The Connoisseur Year Book, 1951, p.16, pl.xii). The Blenheim bureau rests on two carved giltwood mouldings, each with scrolled X-shaped supports decorated with lambrequins on ebony bun feet headed by square ormolu collars. Inlaid en première partie with red tortoiseshell, it has identical side panels and a virtually identical front to this bureau. The top is inlaid with the arms of the Duc d'Aumont (16 - ). Two other table tops identical to the Blenheim desk with the Duc d'Aumont's arms but en contre partie are known, both mounted on 19th Century bases. One, from the Wernher Collection, Luton Hoo (no. 386) was sold in these Rooms, 14 April 1983, lot 86, and the other was sold Christie's, New York, 1 November 1990, lot 166. This group is now attributed to Pierre Gole on stylistic grounds (information kindly supplied by J.N. Ronfort).
Two other rectangular panels, both en première partie are known, virtually identical to the top of this bureau. One, from the collection of the Earl of Warwick was sold Christie's Geneva, 18 November 1974, lot 55. The other from the collection of the Marquis of Lincolnshire, Carrington House, Whitehall, London, is illustrated mounted as the central panel of a breakfront side cabinet probably constructed in the late 18th Century (M. Harris, Catalogue, 1920). This group is attributed to Pierre Gole on grounds of stylistic similarities to other pieces now firmly attributed to this important Court ébéniste, namely a bureau in the collection of the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry, Boughton House and a table and pair of gueridons at Knole. Professor Lunsingh Scheurleer has identified the Boughton bureau as almost certainly the bureau supplied to Louis XIV for Versailles described in a bill of 1672. It would seem that Gole pioneered and virtually monopolised the manufacture of such bureaux, his first being mentioned by the Comptes de Menus Plaisirs in 1669. Between this date and his death in 1684, a period during which he worked more or less continually on commissions for Versailles, he is thought to have made more than twenty-five bureaux. The Knole table and gueridons are thought to have been presented by Louis XIV to Charles Sackville, Ambassador to Paris from 1669 to 1670. This bureau shares the characteristic use of scrolling foliage and balance of decoration as seen on the Boughton and Knole examples. This is also linked with a drawing for the parquet of the Cabinet doré of the Dauphin at Versailles for which Gole was paid 7500 livres in 1682 and which very much displays Gole's style (Th.H. Lunsingh Scheurleer, 'Pierre Gole, ébéniste du Roi Louis XIV', Burlington Magazine, June 1980, pp.380-395)
If one takes the inventory of Gole's workhhop following his death in 1684 as an indicator of what he was making and in what proportions, the use of brass and pewter marquetry would appear to have been rare in his oeuvre. But of a total of about two hundred pieces only six appear to have had this form of decoration and they are the most expensive items in the inventory.
Gole enjoyed close links with the celebrated Marot dynasty of designers. One of his sisters married Jean Marot, architect to the Bâtiments du Roi and he was probably instrumental in Gole originally gaining his royal commissions. The decoration on some of Gole's furniture reflects the designs of Daniel Marot, his nephew, who in the early part of his career was very active and highly regarded in Paris. Elements of the design of the top of this bureau appear in a set of engravings for bed testers and coverlets by Daniel Marot, now in the Bibliothèque des Arts Décoratifs (The J. Paul Getty Museum Journal, vol.14, 1986, p.93).