CIRCA 1740, MINOR ALTERATIONS

Details

A GEORGE II MAHOGANY BOOKCASE
CIRCA 1740, minor alterations
The broken egg-and-dart cornice centred by a platform with flanking eagle-headed acanthus scrolls, above a pair of geometrically-glazed doors, the lower section with a Vitruvian-scrolled waist moulding with two slides, above a pair of double fielded-panelled hinged doors each enclosing a drawer and a shelf, on a plinth base with ribbon-and-rosette border, the plain section of the plinth later, the hinges on the lower doors replaced and each door originally one piece without the central hinges, the glazing replaced, the cabinet section slightly reduced in height and with consequential alterations to the framing of the cornice
112 in. (284.5 cm.) high; 81½ in. (207 cm.) wide; 22¼ in. (56.5 cm.) deep

Provenance

(Possibly supplied to the Fermor family, Tusmore, Oxfordshire and possibly sold with the house to the 2nd Earl of Effingham (d. 1889) and by descent to John Baring, who sold Tusmore Park in 1929 to)
The Lord Bicester, Tusmore Park, Oxfordshire; sold Christie's, London, 21 March 1957, lot 51.
Anonymous sale [Property of a Nobleman]; Christie's, London, 12 March 1981, lot 106.
Anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 19 November 1981, lot 105.

Literature

For one from the same set:
P. Macquoid and R. Edwards, The Dictionary of English Furniture, London, 1954, vol. I, p. 83, fig. 11.
P. Macquoid and R. Edwards, The Shorter Dictionary of English Furniture, London, rev. ed., 1964, p. 53, fig. 7.

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 21% will be added to the buyer''s premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

The temple-pedimented bookcase is designed in the George II Roman fashion instigated by the architect Inigo Jones (d. 1637) and promoted by Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington. A bust is likely to have been intended for display on the bracket, which is incorporated in its moulded and echinus-enriched pediment and buttressed by addorsed Jupiter eagle-heads emerging from the rich volutes of Roman foliage. The cornice of its 'commode' base conceals book-slides, and is fretted with a Vitruvian wave-scrolled ribbon fret; while the plinth's torus moulding is enriched with a flowered ribbon-guilloche The 'commode' doors display fine figured panels of mahogany, which are sunk in fielded panels. The open pediment and glazing pattern relates to a Tuscan bookcase pattern of 1739 in Batty Langley's, Treasury of Designs: or the Art of Drawing and Working the ornamental parts of Architecture, London, 1745, pl. 58). Similar addorsed eagles, sometimes united by a coronet, feature on the contemporary cornices of doors or chimney-pieces. Langley illustrated similar eagles issuing from Roman foliage in a chimney-piece in Gothic Architecture Improv'd by Rules and Proportions, 1742 (pl. 47).

A bookcase of this pattern was formerly in the collection assembled Mr. Geoffrey Blackwell with advice from the furniture historian and dealer R. W. Symonds. (R. W. Symonds, 'Furniture in the Collection of Mr. Geoffrey Blackwell', Apollo, April 1936, pp. 192-320, fig. 2). Another belonged to Mr. Vivian Smith, created Lord Bicester in 1938, who purchased Tusmore, Oxfordshire in 1929. Following Lord Bicester's sale of this second bookcase at Christie's, London on 21 March 1957 (lot 51), it was acquired by Mr. John Blackwell to accompany the first, which he had inherited from his father.

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