MID-18TH CENTURY

細節

A GEORGE II MAHOGANY BREAKFRONT BOOKCASE
MID-18TH CENTURY
The rectangular moulded cornice above a plain frieze and a pair of glazed doors with moulded glazing bars enclosing ten adjustable shelves in two compartments, flanked by wing sections with five adjustable shelves, the shallow base with a pair of crossbanded doors flanked by conforming doors, on a moulded plinth base, twelve pine shelves replaced, eight mahogany shelves original, the handles and locks replaced, the bolection-moulded upper element of the cornice possibly added later
101 in. (256.5 cm.) high; 129½ in. (329 cm.) wide; 19½ in. (49.5 cm.) deep

來源

Henry Yates Thompson (1838-1928), 19 Portman Square or Oving, Buckinghamshire.

注意事項

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.

拍品專文

Henry Yates Thompson was one of the late 19th and early 20th century's great bibliophiles and collectors of medieval manuscripts. His passion was directed by an inheritance of ten medieval manuscripts from his maternal grandmother and throughout his long life, he steadily increased and constantly refined his collection. His largest and most spectacular purchase was a group of more than 200 manuscripts from the Earl of Ashburnham in 1897 known as the 'Ashburnham Appendix'. His collection was eventually sold in three sales at Sotheby's in 1919, 1920 and 1921 (it was around this time that Sotheby's began to auction items other than Books, which it had done almost exclusively since its foundation).

Yates Thompson was head boy of Harrow School and won the Porson prize for Greek verse at Trinity College, Cambridge. Besides his collecting of manuscripts, he was the proprietor of the Pall Mall Gazette which his father-in-law made over to him in 1880. Newspaper ownership evidently gave him little reward and in 1892 he sold, not unprofitably, to William Waldorf Astor. He married in 1878, Elizabeth, daughter of George Smith, founder of the Dictionary of National Biography. They lived at 19 Portman Square and Oving, Buckinghamshire. A group of forty-six illuminated manuscripts was left by his wife to the British Museum, known as the Yates Thompson collection (A. Bell, 'Thompson, Henry Yates (1838-1928), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford, 2004).