CIRCA 1830, BY FRANCESCO LOPEZ DE LA LLARE

Details

A SPANISH FERDINANDO VII ORMOLU-MOUNTED SOLID MAHOGANY ARMOIRE
Circa 1830, by Francesco Lopez de la Llare
Of inverted breakfront form, the projecting cornice cast with acanthus and egg-and-dart mouldings and above a pair of doors, each with two fielded panels with beaded and stiff-leaf borders, centred by stylised foliate escutcheons and flanked to each side by slightly tapering columns with engine-turned capitals and bases, the interior enclosing five adjustable shelves, the sides with two further beaded raised panels, above a moulded spreading plinth of inverted breakfront outline with a lotus-leaf border, minor section lacking to the top left hand cornice, with indistinct chalk inscription to the reverse 'SERB...', the escutheons cut with an 'S', the original key with a gilded coronet above the initials 'MC' and further inscribed 'MADRID ANO 1830 /FC. LOPEZ DE LA. LLARE'
51¼ in. (130.2 cm.) wide; 88 in. (223.5 cm.) high; 27 in. (68.6 cm.) deep

Provenance

Supplied to the Queen of Spain, Doña Maria Cristina de Borbón, wife of King Fernando VII in 1830.
Thence by descent to her daughter, Queen Isabel II.
Presented by Queen Isabel II to General Caradoc, Lord Howden (d.1873), appointed Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary at the Spanish Court by Queen Victoria between 1850-1858, the Castillo de Caradoc, Bayona.
Acquired by Sr. Emanuel Bocher.
Inherited by the Marqés de Fuente Hermosa and sold by his wife in 1942.
Acquired in Paris in the 1950's and thence by descent.

Lot Essay

This armoire was commissioned in Madrid in 1830 by the Queen of Spain, Doña Maria Cristina de Borbón, the wife of King Fernando VII. Inherited by her daughter, Queen Isabel II, it was subsequently presented by the latter to General Caradoc, Lord Howden, Queen Victoria's Envoy Extraordinary. Appointed Minister Plenipotentiary at the Spanish Court between 1850-1858, Lord Howden transferred the armoire to the Castillo de Caradoc in Saint-Esprit, Bayona, which he had built in 1857 on the ancient lands of the Merignac in the 'Edad Media', where the Orden de San Juan de Jerusalem had been founded in the 12th Century.

At the death of Lord Howden in 1873, the Castillo and its contents were acquired by Sr. Emmanuel Bocher, who bequeathed them in turn to the Marqés de Fuente Hermosa. It was his wife who sold the armoire in 1942.

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