EARLY 19TH CENTURY

Details

A PAIR OF REGENCY SATINWOOD AND POLYCHROME-DECORATED BONHEURS-DU-JOURS
EARLY 19TH CENTURY
Each with rectangular top with banded edge filled with floral trails, with superstructure with mirrored back and surmounted by a stepped Tuscan columned three-quarter gallery, the lower section with a mahogany-lined drawer, above an arch, the sides decorated with elliptical grisailles depicting the Muses of Mount Parnassus, on turned baluster paired legs joined by an incurved undertier, on turned tapering feet, one drawer with red leather-lined reading-slope, the other drawer previously with divisions, one inscribed 'Drawing R' and one '2' on the reverse
56 in. (142 cm.) high; 37½ in. (95 cm.) wide; 19 in. (48 cm.) deep (2)

Provenance

Anonymous sale, Christie's, London, 28 November 2002, lot 132.

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

Lucy Wood has argued that the small group of painted furniture that includes these bonheurs-du-jour was made in the early 19th Century by craftsmen working at the very end of the Sheraton tradition of painted furniture, and not in any way reviving an old style. Her argument hinges on several elements, none of which are individually compelling but collectively putting a strong case in favour of the group being constructed no later than 1820-1830. These bonheurs-du-jour stylistically relate most closely to a commode in the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight (L. Wood, Catalogue of Commodes, London, 1994, no. 36, pp. 276-283). They share the use of West Indian satinwood, increasingly scarce after the early 19th Century, and the very large oval monochrome medallions in a stiff neoclassical style. Their complex shape, combining the role of dressing-table, china cabinet and galleried lady's bookcase, derives from patterns in Sheraton's Drawing Book of 1802

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