A GEORGE III MAHOGANY DISPLAY-CABINET

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Details

A GEORGE III MAHOGANY DISPLAY-CABINET
The moulded rectangular dentilled and fluted cornice above a pair of moulded glazed doors, each with central oval mirror within a carved moulded frame with rosette and C-scroll spandrel supports and a half-fan medallion with husk trails to the base, the cresting with acanthus spray and stiff-leaves suspended from a ribbon-tied and husk-garlanded fluted oval patera enclosing a fitted interior with two adjustable mahogany-fronted shelves above a moulded waist and a pair of rectangular panelled doors enclosing two further shelves, one mahogany, probably later, the other cedar and probably original, on a moulded plinth and ogee-shaped bracket feet, the replaced locks stamped 'SAFETY LEVER', with two keys, the handles replaced, the back-right foot partially replaced, with indistinct chalk inscription to the reverse 'G... Pree...' the top cut through for lighting fixtures
90¼ in. (229 cm.) high; 49¼ in. (125 cm.) wide; 18 in. (46 cm.) deep

Provenance

Bought from Norman Adams, 23 September 1964.

Literature

Connoisseur, October 1964, Norman Adams advertisement.
C. Claxton Stevens and S. Whittington, 18th Century English Furniture, The Norman Adams Collection, Woodbridge, rev. ed., 1985, p. 207 ('... beautifully matched faded figured panelled doors ...').

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis

Lot Essay

The cabinet, with its antique fluted frieze and beribboned 'glass' medallions hung from laurel-garlanded libation paterae, reflects the 'Roman' fashion of the 1770s promoted by architects such as Robert Adam (d.1792). Its medallions are further enriched with flowered acanthus scrolls and scalloped apron patera in the manner of a 'glass frame pattern' in B. Pastorini's New Book of Designs for Girandoles and Glass Frames, 1775, pl. IX.
A bookcase, supplied in the 1760s to the Earl of Pembroke by Thomas Chippendale (d.1778) featured a related glass accompanied by sunbursts and trophies alluding to Apollo, the sun and poetry deity (C. Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, London, 1978, vol. II, fig. 66). It is likely that the doors surrounding the mirror panels were originally backed by silk drapery in a manner praised by Thomas Sheraton as having 'a pretty effect'. (The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Drawing Book, 2nd ed. 1794, pl. 39).

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