A GEORGE IV ORMOLU-MOUNTED AND EBONISED SIDE CABINET

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GILLOWS AT MERE HALL The following two lots were part of a suite of ebonised furniture supplied to Peter Langford-Brooke (d.1840) for his wife's dressing-room, bedroom and sitting-room at Mere Hall, Cheshire, by Gillows of Lancaster. This furniture is likely to have been commissioned by Peter Langford-Brooke (d.1840) around the time that he was elected Sheriff of Cheshire in 1824. Its form can be related to that of a pattern for a 'Lady's Book-case, with Cabinet' in Richard Brown's Rudiments fo Drawing Cabinet and Upholstery Furniture', 2nd ed. 1822, pl. XVIII, which popularised the style introduced during the previous decade by George Bullock (d.1818) (See C. Wainwright, George Bullock, London, 1988, p. 102). Such ebonised furniture was fashionable on three counts; first through its column-enrichments and colouring associated with Pompeian and Etruscan antiquity, second through elements of its form and ormolu embellishments being associated with the ébéniste-work of the Louis XVI period, as exemplified by Guillaume Beneman, and third through its colouring and rich turning being considered as 'Old English' by antiquarians and Wardour Street dealers, who prized old ebony-turned Indian furniture as being 'Elizabethan'.

A GEORGE IV ORMOLU-MOUNTED AND EBONISED SIDE CABINET

BY GILLOWS, CIRCA 1825

Details

A GEORGE IV ORMOLU-MOUNTED AND EBONISED SIDE CABINET
BY GILLOWS, CIRCA 1825
En suite with the following lot, the reeded rectangular top above a frieze with foliate corner panels, with a pair of central panelled doors below enclosing four mahogany slides, with two further slides lacking, with four short mahogany-lined drawers to each side flanked by gadrooned and bobbin-turned corner columns, on a moulded plinth base with bun feet
43 in. (109 cm.) high; 72¼ in. (183.5 cm.) wide; 21¼ in. (54 cm.) deep

Provenance

Supplied to Peter Langford-Brooke Esq. (d.1840), for Mrs. Julia Langford-Brooke's Dressing-room at Mere Hall, Knutsford, Cheshire by Gillows of Lancaster, and by descent at Mere to Mrs Helen Langford-Brooke (+), Mere Hall; sold Christie's house sale, 23 May 1994, lot 86.
Anonymous sale Christie's, London, 12 November 1998, lot 450.

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

This side cabinet is mentioned in the 1840 Inventory of Mrs. Julia Langford-Brooke. It was in her dressing-room and was described as a 'BLACK STAINED MAHOGANY WARDROBE, 8 DRAWERS, AND ENCLOSED SLIDING-SHELVES'.
The room was also furnished with a 'KNEEHOLE TOILET-TABLE TO MATCH WITH 6 SCENT BOTTLES, SECRETAIRES AND OTHER DRAWERS' and a 'BLACK JAPAN (painted) SWING (dressing-mirror), AND AN EASY-CHAIR AND FOOT-STOOL'.

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