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Lot Essay
This magnificent architectural clothes-press belongs to a group of six directly comparable cabinets which were all executed in the same workshop, thought to be that of the Clerkenwell cabinet-maker Giles Grendey. These cabinets all share the following distinctive characteristics:- an arched cornice carved with a central mask - either a satyr mask or lion's mask - above a dentil and egg-and-dart moulded cornice and arched doors, on a gadrooned plinth with Venus scallop-shell clasp and hairy paw feet. Of exceptional technical virtuosity in construction, their metropolitan quality is underlined throughout by the exceptional weight and figuring of the mahogany, offset by restrained but heavy cast pierced brass escutcheons.
Of this group, three display a satyr mask to the cornice:-
- The present example from the Munro Collection
- A linen-press illustrated in John Gloag, A Social History of Furniture Design from B.C. 1300 to A.D. 1960, London, fig. 28
- And a linen-press from the collection of Esmond Bradley-Martin, sold Sotheby's New York, 30 October 2002, lot 128.
The three remaining cabinets display a Herculean lion mask and pelt. These include :
- A book cupboard formerly in the collection of Percival D. Griffiths and illustrated in R. Edwards and P. Macquoid, The Dictionary of English Furniture, rev. edn., 1954 (sold from the Baum Collection, Sotheby's New York, 22 October 2004, lot 456 ($164,800).
-Another, with later glazed upper section replacing the wooden doors, sold anonymously at Christie's, London, 25 June 1987, lot 126.
- A linen-press in the Noel Terry Collection, York, illustrated in Peter Brown, The Noel Terry Collection of Furniture and Clocks, York, 1987, p. 71, fig. 71.
-And finally, a linen press from the collection of the Earls of Cassillis at Culzean Castle, Ayrshire, illustrated in the National Trust's Culzean Castle Guide Book, Lord Cassillis' bedroom.
GILES GRENDEY
Giles Grendey (d.1780), cabinet-maker of St. John's Square, Clerkenwell, London ran a substantial business from 1726, when he took his first apprentices, until at least the late 1760s, following his appointment as Master of the Joiners' Company in 1766. Described at the time of his wife's death as a 'great Dealer in the Cabinet way', in 1755 at the time of his daughter's marriage to the Royal cabinet-maker John Cobb he was called an 'eminent Timber Merchant'. While few payments to him have been traced in country house archives, he supplied a good number of intrinsic walnut and mahogany pieces to aristocratic houses including Longford Castle, Stourhead and Barn Elms. He was also very involved in the timber and export business. In fact, Grendey is probably best known for the extensive suite of scarlet-japanned furniture he executed for the Duke of Infantado's castle at Lazcano, Spain, whilst recently discovered labelled mirrors in Norway also indicate that Grendey exported goods to Scandinavia.
Although no documentary evidence survives to conclusively support the Grendey attribution, this linen-press and its peers display several stylistic links to documented Grendey furniture. In particular, a linen press of closely related form, but with a broken pediment and shaped fielded panelled doors, undoubtedly executed in the same workshop (sold anonymously at Sotheby's, New York, 18 October 18, 1980, lot 101) displays Grendey's characteristic hour-glass fielded panelled doors; these appear on both a mahogany and a red and gilt-japanned cabinet bearing Grendey's trade label (Christopher Gilbert, Marked London Furniture 1700-1840, Leeds, 1996, p. 241, fig. 433). Similarly, doors of the same design feature on a bureau bookcase from Percival Griffiths' collection, illustrated in R. W. Symonds, English Furniture from Charles II to George II, London, 1929, p. 201, fig. 210; its stand has a gadrooned apron and short cabriole legs with paw feet of directly comparable character. And whilst comparatively little of Grendey's seat-furniture is labelled, his chairs often bear the initials of journeymen craftsmen in his workshop (see the chair lot 29). The parallels between Grendey's seat-furniture for Ettington Park, stamped by the journeyman William House who worked for him from 1747, with their distinctive hairy-paw feet, is worth commenting on (anonymous sale, Christie's London, 4 July 2002, lot 20).
Of this group, three display a satyr mask to the cornice:-
- The present example from the Munro Collection
- A linen-press illustrated in John Gloag, A Social History of Furniture Design from B.C. 1300 to A.D. 1960, London, fig. 28
- And a linen-press from the collection of Esmond Bradley-Martin, sold Sotheby's New York, 30 October 2002, lot 128.
The three remaining cabinets display a Herculean lion mask and pelt. These include :
- A book cupboard formerly in the collection of Percival D. Griffiths and illustrated in R. Edwards and P. Macquoid, The Dictionary of English Furniture, rev. edn., 1954 (sold from the Baum Collection, Sotheby's New York, 22 October 2004, lot 456 ($164,800).
-Another, with later glazed upper section replacing the wooden doors, sold anonymously at Christie's, London, 25 June 1987, lot 126.
- A linen-press in the Noel Terry Collection, York, illustrated in Peter Brown, The Noel Terry Collection of Furniture and Clocks, York, 1987, p. 71, fig. 71.
-And finally, a linen press from the collection of the Earls of Cassillis at Culzean Castle, Ayrshire, illustrated in the National Trust's Culzean Castle Guide Book, Lord Cassillis' bedroom.
GILES GRENDEY
Giles Grendey (d.1780), cabinet-maker of St. John's Square, Clerkenwell, London ran a substantial business from 1726, when he took his first apprentices, until at least the late 1760s, following his appointment as Master of the Joiners' Company in 1766. Described at the time of his wife's death as a 'great Dealer in the Cabinet way', in 1755 at the time of his daughter's marriage to the Royal cabinet-maker John Cobb he was called an 'eminent Timber Merchant'. While few payments to him have been traced in country house archives, he supplied a good number of intrinsic walnut and mahogany pieces to aristocratic houses including Longford Castle, Stourhead and Barn Elms. He was also very involved in the timber and export business. In fact, Grendey is probably best known for the extensive suite of scarlet-japanned furniture he executed for the Duke of Infantado's castle at Lazcano, Spain, whilst recently discovered labelled mirrors in Norway also indicate that Grendey exported goods to Scandinavia.
Although no documentary evidence survives to conclusively support the Grendey attribution, this linen-press and its peers display several stylistic links to documented Grendey furniture. In particular, a linen press of closely related form, but with a broken pediment and shaped fielded panelled doors, undoubtedly executed in the same workshop (sold anonymously at Sotheby's, New York, 18 October 18, 1980, lot 101) displays Grendey's characteristic hour-glass fielded panelled doors; these appear on both a mahogany and a red and gilt-japanned cabinet bearing Grendey's trade label (Christopher Gilbert, Marked London Furniture 1700-1840, Leeds, 1996, p. 241, fig. 433). Similarly, doors of the same design feature on a bureau bookcase from Percival Griffiths' collection, illustrated in R. W. Symonds, English Furniture from Charles II to George II, London, 1929, p. 201, fig. 210; its stand has a gadrooned apron and short cabriole legs with paw feet of directly comparable character. And whilst comparatively little of Grendey's seat-furniture is labelled, his chairs often bear the initials of journeymen craftsmen in his workshop (see the chair lot 29). The parallels between Grendey's seat-furniture for Ettington Park, stamped by the journeyman William House who worked for him from 1747, with their distinctive hairy-paw feet, is worth commenting on (anonymous sale, Christie's London, 4 July 2002, lot 20).