A PAIR OF REGENCY BRASS-MOUNTED ROSEWOOD AND PARCEL-GILT ETAGERES

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THE PROPERTY OF A EUROPEAN PRIVATE COLLECTOR (LOTS 26-27)

Details

A PAIR OF REGENCY BRASS-MOUNTED ROSEWOOD AND PARCEL-GILT ETAGERES
Each with three concave-cornered shelves with pierced scrolled galleries and beaded borders on sroll brackets, the backs lined with pleated yellow silk, on conforming plinth bases, with 19th century paper label inscribed in ink 'Inventory 1838 R.H.', the angle-brackets probably later gilded, possibly adapted from a larger piece of furniture before the 1838 inventory
42½ in. (108 cm.) high; 14¼ in. (36.5 cm.) wide; 8¾ in. (22 cm.) deep (2)

Provenance

Possibly supplied to Sir Thomas Dalrymple Hesketh, 3rd Bt. (1777-1842) for Rufford Hall, Lancashire and by descent in the Fermor-Hesketh family, Easton Neston, Northamptonshire until sold from the Fermor-Hesketh Collection, in these Rooms, 7 July 1988, lot 21 (£16,500).

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

Such brass-galleried étagère china-shelves, generally mirror-backed, are conceived in the French Grecian fashion appropriate for a lady's apartment and popularised around 1800 by the pattern-books issued by Thomas Sheraton. These stand on 'altar' plinths of black-figured rosewood, whose hollowed corners are echoed by pearl-wreathed golden trussed-brackets and shelves with wave-fretted galleries. Similar etageres for vases and candelabra accompanied tall 'cheval' dressing-glasses at the period.
Their 1838 inventory label may to be that of Rufford New Hall, Lancashire, so they might have been commissioned by Sir Thomas Dalrymple Hesketh, 3rd Bt. following his marriage in 1798 to Sophia Hinde of Shifnal, Shropshire. Rufford ceased to be the Hesketh's principal seat in 1867 following their inheritance of Easton Neston, Northamptonshire. In 1936 Sir Thomas Fermor-Hesketh, 8th Bt and 1st Lord Hesketh (d. 1944) presented Rufford Old Hall to the National Trust.

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