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Lot Essay
This magnificent commode is part of a group of serpentine commodes attributed to the long lasting London cabinet-making partnership of William Ince and John Mayhew. The partners are best known for their marquetry commodes inlaid with large scale neo-classical motifs and this commode is one of the most elegant and characteristic. Hugh Roberts (loc. cit.) attributed thirteen commodes with this type of marquetry of which five are of serpentine form. The serpentine sub-group comprises:
1. As the only member of the group for which a documentary connection with the firm exists, the locus classicus is a pair of commodes at Broadlands, Hampshire, which are firmly linked to large payments to Ince in the 2nd Viscount Palmerston's personal account books for the years 1765-74 and 1785-97 (G. Beard and C. Gilbert, (eds.), The Dictionary of English Furniture Makers, Leeds, 1986, p. 596). These commodes, one of which is illustrated in Roberts, op. cit., fig. 23, is inlaid with a swagged, ribbon-tied and wreathed geometric patera. Evidence suggests that the Broadlands commodes may be as late as 1788, rather than as early as 1774.
2. A commode sold at Christie's, London, 29 November 1979, lot 65 from the collection of the Shafto family at Bavington Hall, Northumberland. The centre of the front of this commode is a painted panel in the style of Angelica Kauffman.
3. An unprovenanced commode, with almost identical marquetry to the Swallowfield Park commode, is in The Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight (L. Wood, op. cit., pp. 210-16, no. 24).
4. An unprovenanced commode is in the Victoria and Albert Museum, W.10-1917, and is illustrated in M. Tomlin, Catalogue of Adam Period Furniture, London, 1972, p. 171 and Roberts, op. cit., fig. 19.
SWALLOWFIELD PARK, BERKSHIRE
In the sale in 1972, there were two other lots from Swallowfield Park, both of which could be attributed to Mayhew and Ince. Lot 87 was a set of six mahogany side chairs with pierced and interlaced rocaille-carved backs. These relate very closely to several designs in Mayhew and Ince's Universal System of Household Furniture, 1762, particularly pl. X. A firmer attribution is possible for lot 88, a pair of marquetry encoignures, a known type made by the firm, but in this case also inlaid on an exotic ground with a large scale neo-classical urn within ebonised borders, all characteristics of their work.
The presence of three lots attributable to one firm in the 1972 sale, makes it highly probable that the Russell family, who remained at Swallowfield until 1965, had acquired all or part of an 18th century Mayhew and Ince commission. Unfortunately it is extremely difficult to suggest to whom the furniture was originally supplied. One option is that it came from the Whitworth family and passed by inheritance to Lady Russell from her brother. In favour of this is the known strength of the connection between the two parts of the family. On his return from India in 1813, Sir Henry Russell was offered a seat in parliament by his brother-in-law Lord Whitworth, which he declined saying he 'did not choose to be any gentleman's gentleman' (D.N.B.). Against this possibility is the fact that Lord Whitworth's possessions descended at least in part to his stepson, the Duke of Dorset, and remain at Knole. Another possibility is that the furniture had been supplied to Swallowfield and was bought with the house by the Russell family when they acquired it in 1820. Although this is possible, the complex history of Swallowfield in the years between 1770 and 1820 make it unlikely that the house would still contain neo-classical marquetry furniture when sold to the Russells. From 1737-1783 it was owned by the Dodd family. When sold in 1783, James Christie conducted a house sale of the contents. The catalogue shows that it contained furniture of the mid-18th century with the 'State Velvet Room' containing an 18ft high state bed upholstered in Genoa velvet. There is no sense from the catalogue that the house had been refurnished in the fashionable neo-classical style of the 1770s or 1780s, and the sale did not contain this commode. From 1783 until 1788 the house was owned by Sylvanus Bevan, one of the founders of what is now Barclays Bank. T.H.A. Earle bought the house and estate then, and sold them in 1820 to Sir Henry Russell. The vagaries of changing ownership make it very improbable that this commode was supplied to an earlier owner of Swallowfield.
THE ICONOGRAPHY
The iconography of elaborate neo-classical marquetry commodes, designed by architects, or one of the very few leading cabinet-makers, is the most complex of all late 18th century English furniture. This commode is no exception, designed in the George III French or 'antique' fashion of the late 1770s, with its inlay of sacred urns accompanying a bacchic medallion evoking the poet's accounts of festivities in antiquity. An Etruscan-black moulded edge frames the top, which is flowered in myrtle sprigs accompanying a poetic laurel-wreathed Roman medallion of marble-figured yew. The façade medallion depicts a Bacchic bull, possibly derived from an engraving of an antique gem (Bernard Picart, Gemmae Antiquae Caelatae, Amsterdam, 1724; the source tentatively cited in Wood, loc. cit.). The bull medallion on this commode is displayed in a tablet, with shell-scalloped corners, and is wreathed by beribboned and palm-flowered laurels draped from sunflowered paterae. More tablets, at the splayed sides, display enflamed and palm-wreathed cassolette vases, which are festooned in laurels draped from their eagle-head handles. Apollo-sunflowered medallions enrich their plinths. Whereas the engraving of the gem depicts the bull guarding the palm-wreathed thyrsus, (or fertility wand of Bacchus), here the emblem is repositioned with thyrsus-shaped feet wreathed in alternating palms and thyrsi, then terminated in reeded bulbs that are checkered in black.
The commode's black-colouring and vase-inlay reflect the 'Etruscan', or vase-columbarium style, introduced in the 1760s by the court architect Robert Adam (d.1792) and popularised by its publication in The Works of Robert and James Adam, 1773-74. The large branches on the top may have been inspired by those that accompany an urn in the frieze of the Temple of Solomon.
THE TIMBER
This commode shares its exceptionally unusual ground veneer with the commode in the Lady Lever Art Gallery (Wood, loc. cit.). In the research for that catalogue, this wood was tentatively identified as makore (tieghemella heckelii), a West African wood. An alternative suggestion was put forward of bulletwood (manikara littoralis) or tauronico (humeria spp.). The latter is also known as bastard bulletwood. It is just possible that there is a connection between the bull marquetry decoration and the use of tauronico.
1. As the only member of the group for which a documentary connection with the firm exists, the locus classicus is a pair of commodes at Broadlands, Hampshire, which are firmly linked to large payments to Ince in the 2nd Viscount Palmerston's personal account books for the years 1765-74 and 1785-97 (G. Beard and C. Gilbert, (eds.), The Dictionary of English Furniture Makers, Leeds, 1986, p. 596). These commodes, one of which is illustrated in Roberts, op. cit., fig. 23, is inlaid with a swagged, ribbon-tied and wreathed geometric patera. Evidence suggests that the Broadlands commodes may be as late as 1788, rather than as early as 1774.
2. A commode sold at Christie's, London, 29 November 1979, lot 65 from the collection of the Shafto family at Bavington Hall, Northumberland. The centre of the front of this commode is a painted panel in the style of Angelica Kauffman.
3. An unprovenanced commode, with almost identical marquetry to the Swallowfield Park commode, is in The Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight (L. Wood, op. cit., pp. 210-16, no. 24).
4. An unprovenanced commode is in the Victoria and Albert Museum, W.10-1917, and is illustrated in M. Tomlin, Catalogue of Adam Period Furniture, London, 1972, p. 171 and Roberts, op. cit., fig. 19.
SWALLOWFIELD PARK, BERKSHIRE
In the sale in 1972, there were two other lots from Swallowfield Park, both of which could be attributed to Mayhew and Ince. Lot 87 was a set of six mahogany side chairs with pierced and interlaced rocaille-carved backs. These relate very closely to several designs in Mayhew and Ince's Universal System of Household Furniture, 1762, particularly pl. X. A firmer attribution is possible for lot 88, a pair of marquetry encoignures, a known type made by the firm, but in this case also inlaid on an exotic ground with a large scale neo-classical urn within ebonised borders, all characteristics of their work.
The presence of three lots attributable to one firm in the 1972 sale, makes it highly probable that the Russell family, who remained at Swallowfield until 1965, had acquired all or part of an 18th century Mayhew and Ince commission. Unfortunately it is extremely difficult to suggest to whom the furniture was originally supplied. One option is that it came from the Whitworth family and passed by inheritance to Lady Russell from her brother. In favour of this is the known strength of the connection between the two parts of the family. On his return from India in 1813, Sir Henry Russell was offered a seat in parliament by his brother-in-law Lord Whitworth, which he declined saying he 'did not choose to be any gentleman's gentleman' (D.N.B.). Against this possibility is the fact that Lord Whitworth's possessions descended at least in part to his stepson, the Duke of Dorset, and remain at Knole. Another possibility is that the furniture had been supplied to Swallowfield and was bought with the house by the Russell family when they acquired it in 1820. Although this is possible, the complex history of Swallowfield in the years between 1770 and 1820 make it unlikely that the house would still contain neo-classical marquetry furniture when sold to the Russells. From 1737-1783 it was owned by the Dodd family. When sold in 1783, James Christie conducted a house sale of the contents. The catalogue shows that it contained furniture of the mid-18th century with the 'State Velvet Room' containing an 18ft high state bed upholstered in Genoa velvet. There is no sense from the catalogue that the house had been refurnished in the fashionable neo-classical style of the 1770s or 1780s, and the sale did not contain this commode. From 1783 until 1788 the house was owned by Sylvanus Bevan, one of the founders of what is now Barclays Bank. T.H.A. Earle bought the house and estate then, and sold them in 1820 to Sir Henry Russell. The vagaries of changing ownership make it very improbable that this commode was supplied to an earlier owner of Swallowfield.
THE ICONOGRAPHY
The iconography of elaborate neo-classical marquetry commodes, designed by architects, or one of the very few leading cabinet-makers, is the most complex of all late 18th century English furniture. This commode is no exception, designed in the George III French or 'antique' fashion of the late 1770s, with its inlay of sacred urns accompanying a bacchic medallion evoking the poet's accounts of festivities in antiquity. An Etruscan-black moulded edge frames the top, which is flowered in myrtle sprigs accompanying a poetic laurel-wreathed Roman medallion of marble-figured yew. The façade medallion depicts a Bacchic bull, possibly derived from an engraving of an antique gem (Bernard Picart, Gemmae Antiquae Caelatae, Amsterdam, 1724; the source tentatively cited in Wood, loc. cit.). The bull medallion on this commode is displayed in a tablet, with shell-scalloped corners, and is wreathed by beribboned and palm-flowered laurels draped from sunflowered paterae. More tablets, at the splayed sides, display enflamed and palm-wreathed cassolette vases, which are festooned in laurels draped from their eagle-head handles. Apollo-sunflowered medallions enrich their plinths. Whereas the engraving of the gem depicts the bull guarding the palm-wreathed thyrsus, (or fertility wand of Bacchus), here the emblem is repositioned with thyrsus-shaped feet wreathed in alternating palms and thyrsi, then terminated in reeded bulbs that are checkered in black.
The commode's black-colouring and vase-inlay reflect the 'Etruscan', or vase-columbarium style, introduced in the 1760s by the court architect Robert Adam (d.1792) and popularised by its publication in The Works of Robert and James Adam, 1773-74. The large branches on the top may have been inspired by those that accompany an urn in the frieze of the Temple of Solomon.
THE TIMBER
This commode shares its exceptionally unusual ground veneer with the commode in the Lady Lever Art Gallery (Wood, loc. cit.). In the research for that catalogue, this wood was tentatively identified as makore (tieghemella heckelii), a West African wood. An alternative suggestion was put forward of bulletwood (manikara littoralis) or tauronico (humeria spp.). The latter is also known as bastard bulletwood. It is just possible that there is a connection between the bull marquetry decoration and the use of tauronico.