POSSIBLY BY JAMES MOORE, CIRCA 1720

Details

A GEORGE I PADOUK, WALNUT, MARQUETRY AND NEEDLEWORK SOFA
POSSIBLY BY JAMES MOORE, CIRCA 1720
The rectangular back, scrolled arms and padded seat covered in associated 18th century needlework worked in wool and silk, the back depicting The Fall of Phaeton within borders of flowers and foliate scrolls, the seat depicting a stag and hunting hounds in a landscape, the seat-rail with two oval medallions each inlaid with a demi-rampant horse and with scrolled brackets, on square cabriole legs and square pad feet, restorations to needlework, with paper label printed and inscribed 'S/B Lot No. 700 Art. No. 492'
45 in. (114 cm.) high; 58 in. (147 cm.) wide; 28 in. (71 cm.) deep

Provenance

Possibly Sir Gregory Page, 2nd Bt. (1685-1775).
Colonel Way, D.S.O., J.P., Denham Place, Bucks; Messrs. Knight, Frank and Rutley house sale, 10 May 1920, lot 97, as part of the complete suite (including the present settee, four chairs and a pair of stools).
The late William Hesketh Lever (1851-1925), 1st Viscount Leverhulme; Anderson Galleries, New York, 9 February 1926, lot 137 (the complete suite to Frank Partridge and Sons Ltd., London ($12,500)
William Randolph Hearst; Parke-Bernet Galleries Inc., New York, part IV, 5-6 January 1939, lot 383 (the complete suite) $3,700.
H.R.H. The Duke of Kent (the settee only).
H.R.H. The Duchess of Kent; Christie, Manson & Woods, Derby House, London, 12-14 March 1947, lot 349 (the settee only), with the present needlework covers (to Mallett & Sons Ltd. 700gns).
The late R. F. Heathcote Amory, Esq.; Christie's, London, 22 July 1965, lot 63 (to R. L. Harrington Ltd. (700gns)).
Purchased from R. L. Harrington Ltd., circa 1965.
Anonymous sale, Sotheby's, New York, 6 April 2006, lot 423.

Literature

'Denham Place, Uxbridge, the seat of Mrs Way', Country Life, 18 November 1905, p. 702 [showing the settee and a stool from the suite]. H. Shipp, 'Christie's 1945-1947 - II', Apollo, September 1947, p. 69.
D. Sutton, Christie's Since the War - 1945-1958, London, 1959, p. 87, fig. 18.
G. Beard & J. Goodison, English Furniture 1500-1840, Oxford, 1986, p. 64, fig. 1.
F. Lewis Hinckley, Masterpieces of Queen Anne and Georgian Furniture, New York, 1991, p. 62, pl. 28.

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

The sofa's golden walnut frame, inlaid with East India padouk, is heraldically charged with crest of Sir Gregory Page, 2nd Bt., who inherited Wricklemarsh, Kent, in 1720 while serving as an East India Company Director. His acanthus-wreathed crest, evoking Roman virtue, is inlaid on medallioned cartouches, which are displayed in triumphal-arched niches, and supported by pearled brackets, which terminate in 'Venus' dolphin heads on legs' trussed and herm-tapered legs. Similar frames featuring niched 'Venus' shells were adopted for Wricklemarsh's banqueting hall chairs, which bore Sir Gregory's arms on their Chinese lacquered backs (a pair of these first sold at Christie's house sale at Wricklemarsh 23-29 April 1783; and again at Christie's London, 15 November 1990, lot 69). Sir Gregory's crest was also inlaid on his contemporary 'India back' parlour chairs (a pair sold Christie's King Street 22 May 2008, lot 89). The needlework is designed in the Louis Quatorze Roman fashion in includes a flowered acanthus cartouche framing a scene from Ovid's, Metamorphoses depicting the 'Fall of Phaeton'. The sun god Apollo watches as Jupiter thunders against the heroic Phaeton, who had failed in his attempt to drive his father's sun-chariot. This subject had been popularised following its adoption for the reverse of the 1689 coronation medal of William and Mary II.

More from Important English Furniture and Clocks

View All