拍品專文
This form of desk was designed for a fashionable lady's apartment of the 1770s. Its serpentined frame is inlaid with neo-classical ornament appropriate to its function as a bonheur-du-jour. In form, decoration and size it is almost identical to the celebrated example at Uppark, Hampshire, which was probably supplied to Lady Sarah Fetherstonhaugh (d. 1788) (see: R.Feddon, Treasures of the National Trust, London, 1976, fig.79). The latter is embellished with poetic trophies, emblematic of Hebe, Jupiter's youthful attendant, while the tambour, veneered like trompe l'oeil poetry books is flanked by Love's flame-bearing sacred urns, supported on bacchic rams-headed monopodiae.
The Uppark bonheur-du-jour displays a central flattened oval medallion inlaid with a stag which may be related to the Fetherstonhaugh crest of an antelope statant. The equivalent place on the present lot is filled with the figure of Pallas Athene amidst symbolic motifs. The figure is taken from an illustration of an 'Etruscan' vase in Sir William Hamilton's Collection of Etruscan, Greek and Roman Antiquities, 1766-7.
These bonheurs-du-jour display many of the features that have been identified as characteristic of the Golden Square firm of Mayhew & Ince (see Dictionary of English Furniture Makers 1660-1840, Leeds, 1986, pp.589-593). Similar inlaid decoration can be found on many documented or attributed pieces, and the use of heavily shaded and engraved marquetry and the trompe l'oeil effect of ribbon-ties hanging over the crossbanding has been identified as especially typical of the firm's work. For example the extremely distinctive berried festoons on the tambour slide also appears on a pair of circular cupboards with almost identical tambour fronts, originally from Bretby Park, seat of the Earls of Stanhope, and subsequently in the collection of Col. H. H. Mulliner (see: H. H. Mulliner, The Decorative Arts in England, London, n.d., fig. 28). The combination of these motifs with the other more unusual features, particularly the berried tambour, makes Mayhew & Ince the most likely makers of this and the Uppark bonheurs-du-jour.
The Uppark bonheur-du-jour displays a central flattened oval medallion inlaid with a stag which may be related to the Fetherstonhaugh crest of an antelope statant. The equivalent place on the present lot is filled with the figure of Pallas Athene amidst symbolic motifs. The figure is taken from an illustration of an 'Etruscan' vase in Sir William Hamilton's Collection of Etruscan, Greek and Roman Antiquities, 1766-7.
These bonheurs-du-jour display many of the features that have been identified as characteristic of the Golden Square firm of Mayhew & Ince (see Dictionary of English Furniture Makers 1660-1840, Leeds, 1986, pp.589-593). Similar inlaid decoration can be found on many documented or attributed pieces, and the use of heavily shaded and engraved marquetry and the trompe l'oeil effect of ribbon-ties hanging over the crossbanding has been identified as especially typical of the firm's work. For example the extremely distinctive berried festoons on the tambour slide also appears on a pair of circular cupboards with almost identical tambour fronts, originally from Bretby Park, seat of the Earls of Stanhope, and subsequently in the collection of Col. H. H. Mulliner (see: H. H. Mulliner, The Decorative Arts in England, London, n.d., fig. 28). The combination of these motifs with the other more unusual features, particularly the berried tambour, makes Mayhew & Ince the most likely makers of this and the Uppark bonheurs-du-jour.