BY TRADITION MADE BY MR. WIMPEAR IN THE EMPLOYMENT OF MR. LOUDON, DECEMBER 6TH 1821

Details

A GEORGE IV SIMULATED-ROSEWOOD AND PAINTED CABINET-ON-STAND
By tradition made by Mr. Wimpear in the employment of Mr. Loudon, December 6th 1821
Decorated overall with scrolling foliage simulating inlaid ivory, the canted rectangular top above a pair of doors each decorated on an ebonised ground with polychrome chinoiserie scenes of figures in gardens, the interior with twelve variously-sized drawers decorated with scenes of the Clifton region alternating with flowers, around a central fielded panelled door decorated on an ebonised ground with a chinoiserie courtier smoking, the stand with inset frieze and on square tapering legs joined by a platform undertier, on bun feet, the frieze of the stand with structural restorations, the reverse of the inner door reputedly bearing a pencil inscription 'Made by George Wimpear in the employ of Mr Loudon, December 6th 1821', with pencil inscription beneath a drawer 'Aban... B. Martin Westbury'
64¾ in. (164.5 cm.) high; 36 in. (91.5 cm.) wide; 17 in. (43 cm.) deep

Provenance

Anonymous sale, Sotheby's London, 15 November 1985, lot 136.
Anonymous sale, Christie's London, 9 July 1992, lot 85.

Literature

G. Beard & C. Gilbert (eds.), The Dictionary of English Furniture Makers 1660-1840, Leeds, 1986, p. 991.
C. Gilbert, Pictorial Dictionary of Marked London Furniture 1700-1840, Leeds, 1996, fig. 578, p. 308.

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 'Clifton' cabinet, with its 'Indian' flowered borders and local views around Bristol combined with Chinese picturesque scenes, reflects the taste for the exotic encouraged by East India Company imports and the rustic style created by George, Prince of Wales, later George IV, at his Marine Pavilion, Brighton around 1800.

The opening of Rudolph Ackermann's print shop, drawing school and art supply store in London in 1795 and his publication of The Repository of Arts, Literature, Fashions 1809 - 28, which included ornaments for paintings on wood, encouraged the fashion for related decorative penwork furniture. The newly invented copper rollers helped popularise this style of Asian floral borders enclosing landscape scenes, which is also found on contemporary transfer-printed pottery wares (see: 'Penwork: The Triumph of Line', Exhibition Catalogue, Hyde Park Antiques, New York, 1989).

A monochrome penwork library table of similar character, decorated with 'picturesque' scenes of Chinamen on floating islands with elaborate 'Indian' floral borders, is signed by Henzell Gouch and dated 1815 (illustrated in F. Collard, Regency Furniture, Woodbridge, 1985, p. 319, pl. 40).
The inscription on this cabinet is presumably on the interior of the carcase and has never been found by Christie's.

More from Important English Furniture

View All