An English Pompeian style ormolu-mounted, parcel-gilt and polychrome-decorated ebonised pedestal desk

BY HOWARD & SONS, LONDON, DESIGNED BY VANDALE, 1862

細節

An English Pompeian style ormolu-mounted, parcel-gilt and polychrome-decorated ebonised pedestal desk
By Howard & Sons, London, Designed by Vandale, 1862
The rectangular top inset with a brown leather writing surface, above an ivy-incised frieze set with two drawers and centred by a ribbon-tied roundel carved with 1862, above two pedestals each with a cupboard door carved with rosette and bellflower encadrement enclosing a winged putto astride a hippocampus, opening to three drawers, the reverse similarly decorated, the frieze centred by a roundel bearing the initals H&S, the angles mounted with Apollo's sacred griffins above Pompeian angle pillars, the locks stamped SECURE
30 in. (76.3 cm.) high; 74 in. (188 cm.) wide; 41½ in. (105.5 cm.) deep

出版

J. Meyer, Great Exhibitions, London, New York, Paris, Philadelphia, 1851-1900, Woodbridge, 2006, p. 165, D135 (engraving of this desk) and p. 154. D91 (engraving of the bookcase from the same suite).
The Art Journal Illustrated Catalogue of the International Exhibition 1862, London, 1862. p. 278 (engraving of this desk) and p. 57 (engraving of the bookcase).

展覽

The International Exhibition, London, 1862.

拍品專文

In 1820 John Howard started trading at 24 Lemon St, London, as a 'Cabinet Manufacturer'. He was to remain there for nine years before moving premises to 27 Great Alie Street and subsequently establishing an upholstery workshop/showroom at 36 Red lion Street. It wasn't until 1848, after a short period of non-trading, that the company moved to its best-known address at 22 Berner's Street and began trading as Howard & Sons.

The London International Exhibition of 1862 saw the first big break for Howard & Sons, when they were awarded a prize for their Pompeian style suite of library furniture, of which the present pedestal desk formed part. Designed by Vandale, an artist working for the firm, the ornamentation of the suite is inspired by that of Roman Baths and reflects the influence of Sir William Gell's 1832 publication entitled Pompeiana: The Topography, Edifices and Ornament of Pompeii, The Result of Excavations since 1819. Recalling the birth of Venus, the chimerical love-driven hippocampi mounts to the doors derive from those featured in mosaic stuccoed compartments on the colourful ceiling vault of the Tepidarium (Gell ibid pl. 30).