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Lot Essay
The lady's bureau dressing-table is likely to have been designed by Thomas Chippendale (d. 1779) for a bedroom apartment window-pier, and relates to the antique Etruscan style promoted by the Rome-trained architect Robert Adam (d. 1796) with inlaid tablets and medallions celebrating the Cardinal Art of Poetry. The secretaire-cabinet shares many stylistic affinities with marquetry-veneered furniture by or attributed to the St. Martin's Lane business of Thomas Chippendale. Chief amongst the comparable pieces that have been securely attributed to Chippendale is the commode now in the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight (C. Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, London, 1978, vol. II, p. 128, fig. 229). The doors on the commode are inlaid with ovals depicting flowering urns and bordered by banding with interlaced square corners. The side panels, while curved on the commode and straight on the present lot are veneered à quatre faces. Furthermore, the top is veneered with an oval medallion on a quarter-veneered ground. Its pair was sold anonymously, Christie's, London, 6 July 1995, lot 152.
The secretaire-cabinet is most closely related, however, to a virtually identical piece, sold by the late Doris Merrill Magowan, Christie's, New York, 22 May 2002, lot 90. The urns inlaid on the doors of both the present piece and the Magowan cabinet relate closely to the inlaid doors on the serpentine commode supplied by Chippendale for Lady Winn's bedchamber at Nostell Priory, Yorkshire and invoiced by Chippendale on 22 December 1770 for £40 (ibid., p. 125, fig. 221).
The top is ray-parquetried from a 'Venus' shell-scalloped medallion, the bureau medallion displays an 'Apollo' sunflower wreathed by laurelled and palm-flowered Roman foliage, while the commode medallions display palm-flowered sacred urns within a ribboned tablet with Grecian fretted corners. In keeping with inlay evoking 'sacrifices at love's altar in antiquity' its sunflowered pilasters terminate in hollow-sided 'altar' plinths. Related ornament features in Thomas Chippendale the Younger's Sketches of Ornament, 1779.
The secretaire-cabinet is most closely related, however, to a virtually identical piece, sold by the late Doris Merrill Magowan, Christie's, New York, 22 May 2002, lot 90. The urns inlaid on the doors of both the present piece and the Magowan cabinet relate closely to the inlaid doors on the serpentine commode supplied by Chippendale for Lady Winn's bedchamber at Nostell Priory, Yorkshire and invoiced by Chippendale on 22 December 1770 for £40 (ibid., p. 125, fig. 221).
The top is ray-parquetried from a 'Venus' shell-scalloped medallion, the bureau medallion displays an 'Apollo' sunflower wreathed by laurelled and palm-flowered Roman foliage, while the commode medallions display palm-flowered sacred urns within a ribboned tablet with Grecian fretted corners. In keeping with inlay evoking 'sacrifices at love's altar in antiquity' its sunflowered pilasters terminate in hollow-sided 'altar' plinths. Related ornament features in Thomas Chippendale the Younger's Sketches of Ornament, 1779.