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Lot Essay
This cabinet is part of a small group of very similar form but with variations in their Director-style ornament. The rustic pillars and pagoda-swept, water-dripped cornice derive from Thomas Chippendale, The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director, 3rd. ed., 1762, pls. CIX and CXXX. Cabinets from this group, with Chinese pagoda astragals strongly framing the centre were either glazed or mirror-glazed. Mirror-glazed cabinets of this form seem to be a variation of the glazed form designed for display purposes.
A similar cabinet from this group, but with a dentilled rectangular cornice, was acquired by Colonel Norman Colville M.C. from Phillips of Hitchin. Colville was an exceptional connoisseur-collector of the years immediately following the First World War. His collection was well known to Percy Macquoid and Ralph Edwards, compilers of The Dictionary of English Furniture in the 1920's, and many illustrations of his furniture were used in the three volumes. To the late John Cornforth, Colville was 'a connoisseur with an exceptional eye for works of art'.
A mahogany cabinet with glazed doors divided by these same pagoda-shaped moulded astragals is illustrated in R. Edwards, The Dictionary of English Furniture, London, 1954, vol. I, fig. 38. Other pieces from this group were offered or sold : Sotheby's, London, 14 November 1986, lot 61; Christie's London, 9 April 1992, lot 89; Christie's London, 11 February 1999, lot 11 (withdrawn); and Christie's London, 14 June 2001, lot 78.
A similar cabinet from this group, but with a dentilled rectangular cornice, was acquired by Colonel Norman Colville M.C. from Phillips of Hitchin. Colville was an exceptional connoisseur-collector of the years immediately following the First World War. His collection was well known to Percy Macquoid and Ralph Edwards, compilers of The Dictionary of English Furniture in the 1920's, and many illustrations of his furniture were used in the three volumes. To the late John Cornforth, Colville was 'a connoisseur with an exceptional eye for works of art'.
A mahogany cabinet with glazed doors divided by these same pagoda-shaped moulded astragals is illustrated in R. Edwards, The Dictionary of English Furniture, London, 1954, vol. I, fig. 38. Other pieces from this group were offered or sold : Sotheby's, London, 14 November 1986, lot 61; Christie's London, 9 April 1992, lot 89; Christie's London, 11 February 1999, lot 11 (withdrawn); and Christie's London, 14 June 2001, lot 78.