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Lot Essay
The 'Grecian' Spencer 'S' monogram door furniture, with Apollo mask handle, was designed by James 'Athenian' Stuart for the Principal Rooms on the Ground and First floors. Although Birmingham was the major centre for the production of household brassware in the 18th Century, the Spencer House door furniture is amongst the richest of 18th Century patterns known and its superlative chasing and thick, buttery gilding is thought to have been executed in London by Diederich Nicolaus Anderson (d.1767). Although scant documentary evidence of Anderson's work survives, he appears to have been both Stuart and Sir William Chambers's preferred metal-worker; Chambers's personal correspondence reveals that Anderson's workshop was largely responsible for producing many of the high quality ormolu ornaments that Chambers' commissions demanded, including Griffin candlesticks for Spencer's first cousin, the 4th Duke of Marlborough at Blenheim Palace and the large medal cabinet designed for the Earl of Charlemont in 1767-68 (sold by the Earl of Iveagh, Elveden Hall, Christie's House Sale, 22 May 1989, lot 843 and now at Somerset House, London).
In many ways, the door furniture at Spencer House underlines the revolutionary integration of Stuart's Neo-Classical and iconographical interior schemes at Spencer House - serving as a prototype to Robert Adam's work of the mid-1760's and 1770s. A direct parallel can be drawn with the five escutcheons and door knobs designed by Robert Adam for the Dining Room at Kedleston. These were commissioned from Mathew Boulton's Soho manufactory in July 1765 through Samuel Wyatt - but the commission was clearly something of a new and challenging departure even for Boulton, and they were not ultimately completed until several years later - possibly accounting for the payment of £25 2s 0d in 1768 (N. Goodison, Matthew Boulton, Ormolu, London, 2002, p.240).
In many ways, the door furniture at Spencer House underlines the revolutionary integration of Stuart's Neo-Classical and iconographical interior schemes at Spencer House - serving as a prototype to Robert Adam's work of the mid-1760's and 1770s. A direct parallel can be drawn with the five escutcheons and door knobs designed by Robert Adam for the Dining Room at Kedleston. These were commissioned from Mathew Boulton's Soho manufactory in July 1765 through Samuel Wyatt - but the commission was clearly something of a new and challenging departure even for Boulton, and they were not ultimately completed until several years later - possibly accounting for the payment of £25 2s 0d in 1768 (N. Goodison, Matthew Boulton, Ormolu, London, 2002, p.240).