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Lot Essay
The golden bookcase evokes lyric poetry and the triumph of the poetry deity Apollo, and is dressed with a vase in the Roman 'Columbarium' fashion promoted by the Rome-trained architect Robert Adam (d.1792), architect to George III. The palm-wreathed krater-vase finial graces its arched and bow-scrolled pediment inlaid with laurels issuing from its flowered volutes. Its trellised glazing is mosaiced in circular compartments derived from the ceiling of the Temple of Apollo engraved in Robert Wood's Ruins of Palmyra, 1753. These are flowered with sunflowered paterae recalling Ovid's Metamorphoses and the History of Apollo and Clytie. Large patera-medallions inlaid on the door tablets of its central commode section are similarly flowered, while the tablets of the recessed drawer-nests are embellished with ormolu sunflowered and laurel-wreathed paterae and laurel-wreaths. As well as the trompe l'oeil flutes inlaid in the cornices of both sections, the bookcase is embellished with black and white fillet-ribbons in Adam's 'Etruscan' fashion.
It is fitted with fine serpentine-fretted lock-plates introduced in the early 1770s and featured on a number of items supplied by some of the leading cabinet-makers including Thomas Chippendale of St. Martin's Lane. (C. Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, London 1978, vol. II, fig. 267).
The commode ornament of flutes and sunflowered paterae relate to that of a pair of commodes supplied around 1780 to Charles 4th Duke of Marlborough and attributed to the Golden Square firm of John Mayhew and William Ince (H. Roberts, 'Furniture for the 4th Duke of Marlborough', Furniture History, 1994, p. 139, fig. 29). The same handles also appear on a roll-top desk attributed to this firm (L. Wood, Catalogue of Commodes, London, 1992, p. 229, fig. 215).
POSSIBLE PROVENANCE
The early provenance of this bookcase is a puzzle that, when solved, will undoubtedly provide a key link in unravelling an as yet unidentified Mayhew and Ince commission. In 1964 it was sold from Northwick Park, Gloucestershire. At the time the sale was known for the collections, notably of Old Masters, formed by Captain E.G. Spencer Churchill, M.C. (1876-1964). Exactly what at Northwick had been collected by Captain Spencer-Churchill and what had been inherited is impossible to guess. There were two other lots in the sale that suggest a wider Mayhew and Ince commission may be hidden in the sale - a demi-lune satinwood commode of the same shape but simpler form as lot 20 in this sale (lot 118 at Northwick) and a chamber organ (lot 246). If it emerged that this bookcase, the commode and the organ were part of an earlier Mayhew commission, there are at least two possible sources for that. Captain Spencer-Churchill inherited Northwick from his mother's family, the Rushouts, Barons Northwick. It is possible that some of the furniture survived the colossal Northwick collection sales of 1859. Any commission would possibly have been by John Rushout, 1st Baron Northwick (1738-1800).
While a Rushout-Northwick commission is conceivable, it does seem less likely that the alternative. Captain Spencer-Churchill was great great grandson of the 4th Duke of Marlborough (d.1817) who was a long term client of the firm, at Blenheim Palace and probably for his son at Whiteknights, near Reading (H. Roberts, 'Furniture for the 4th Duke of Marlborough', Furniture History, 1994, ppp. 130-9). It seems more likely that the three lots attributable to Mayhew and Ince at Northwick Park in 1964 had descended to Captain Spencer-Churchill as remnants of his own family's enormous commission, rather than their having remained in his house throughout.
It is fitted with fine serpentine-fretted lock-plates introduced in the early 1770s and featured on a number of items supplied by some of the leading cabinet-makers including Thomas Chippendale of St. Martin's Lane. (C. Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, London 1978, vol. II, fig. 267).
The commode ornament of flutes and sunflowered paterae relate to that of a pair of commodes supplied around 1780 to Charles 4th Duke of Marlborough and attributed to the Golden Square firm of John Mayhew and William Ince (H. Roberts, 'Furniture for the 4th Duke of Marlborough', Furniture History, 1994, p. 139, fig. 29). The same handles also appear on a roll-top desk attributed to this firm (L. Wood, Catalogue of Commodes, London, 1992, p. 229, fig. 215).
POSSIBLE PROVENANCE
The early provenance of this bookcase is a puzzle that, when solved, will undoubtedly provide a key link in unravelling an as yet unidentified Mayhew and Ince commission. In 1964 it was sold from Northwick Park, Gloucestershire. At the time the sale was known for the collections, notably of Old Masters, formed by Captain E.G. Spencer Churchill, M.C. (1876-1964). Exactly what at Northwick had been collected by Captain Spencer-Churchill and what had been inherited is impossible to guess. There were two other lots in the sale that suggest a wider Mayhew and Ince commission may be hidden in the sale - a demi-lune satinwood commode of the same shape but simpler form as lot 20 in this sale (lot 118 at Northwick) and a chamber organ (lot 246). If it emerged that this bookcase, the commode and the organ were part of an earlier Mayhew commission, there are at least two possible sources for that. Captain Spencer-Churchill inherited Northwick from his mother's family, the Rushouts, Barons Northwick. It is possible that some of the furniture survived the colossal Northwick collection sales of 1859. Any commission would possibly have been by John Rushout, 1st Baron Northwick (1738-1800).
While a Rushout-Northwick commission is conceivable, it does seem less likely that the alternative. Captain Spencer-Churchill was great great grandson of the 4th Duke of Marlborough (d.1817) who was a long term client of the firm, at Blenheim Palace and probably for his son at Whiteknights, near Reading (H. Roberts, 'Furniture for the 4th Duke of Marlborough', Furniture History, 1994, ppp. 130-9). It seems more likely that the three lots attributable to Mayhew and Ince at Northwick Park in 1964 had descended to Captain Spencer-Churchill as remnants of his own family's enormous commission, rather than their having remained in his house throughout.