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拍品專文
This table is part of a suite that consists of twelve side chairs, two armchairs, a footstool and a writing-table, purportedly supplied to Anthony, 5th Earl of Newburgh for Slindon Hall, Sussex. Slindon Hall had been the seat of the Kemp family in the early 18th Century. Barbara Kemp (d. 1797), eventual sole heiress of Anthony Kemp, married James, 4th Earl of Newburgh (d. 1787) in 1749. Slindon was acquired in the early 20th century by Mr. F. Wooton Isaacson ('Slindon Hall', Country Life, 1921). It is likely at this time that Moss Harris, trading as Messrs. Isaacs, acquired this suite of furniture, which he sold to Lord Leverhulme, with five unrelated pieces of blue john, for £650.
On the second day of the 1926 Leverhulme sale (10 February), the chairs and footstool were lots 188-191 and the writing-table lot 140. A pair of the side chairs was subsequently sold (as Louis XVI) by the Westmoreland Museum of Art, Sotheby's New York, 31 March 1990, lot 206 and subsequently at Christie's New York, 18 October 2005, lot 499; and four further side chairs were sold anonymously Christie's London, 15 November 1990, lot 56. The chairs have recently been attributed to Alexandre Louis Delabriere, after designs by Henry Holland, on the basis of a closely related pair supplied by Delabriere for the Boudoir at Southill, home of Samuel Whitbread, which are listed in the 1816 inventory as a pair of 'Round Seat Chairs with painted Tablet backs' (F. Collard, Regency Furniture, 1985, p. 36). Henry Holland was employed by Whitbread to remodel the house and its interiors, and as the principal designer, is likely to have provided designs for these chairs; indeed related side chairs by the emigré chairmaker François Hervé were supplied to George John, 2nd Earl Spencer (1758-1834) for Althorp, Northamptonshire, by Holland and the marchand-mercier Dominique Daguerre during Holland's refurbishment of the house circa 1790. It is possible, therefore, that the whole suite supplied to Slindon, including the present lot and previous writing-table (lot 46), was ordered to designs by Holland, although sadly no record of such a collaboration at Slindon survives.
The painted top is made up of two segmental late 18th-century Neapolitan gouaches of Vesuvius, framing a circular English stipple engraving. The gouaches may well have been purchased by an English traveller on the Grand Tour. A gouache of the same semi-circular form, and of almost exactly the same subject and composition, was purchased by Jonas Brooke while staying in Naples in 1784; it was sold from Mere Hall, Cheshire, Christie's house sale, 23 May 1994, lot 231. The stipple engraving is probably 'The Merry Story' by J.R. Smith. The boy is the same figure as in the companion print 'The Sad Story'.
On the second day of the 1926 Leverhulme sale (10 February), the chairs and footstool were lots 188-191 and the writing-table lot 140. A pair of the side chairs was subsequently sold (as Louis XVI) by the Westmoreland Museum of Art, Sotheby's New York, 31 March 1990, lot 206 and subsequently at Christie's New York, 18 October 2005, lot 499; and four further side chairs were sold anonymously Christie's London, 15 November 1990, lot 56. The chairs have recently been attributed to Alexandre Louis Delabriere, after designs by Henry Holland, on the basis of a closely related pair supplied by Delabriere for the Boudoir at Southill, home of Samuel Whitbread, which are listed in the 1816 inventory as a pair of 'Round Seat Chairs with painted Tablet backs' (F. Collard, Regency Furniture, 1985, p. 36). Henry Holland was employed by Whitbread to remodel the house and its interiors, and as the principal designer, is likely to have provided designs for these chairs; indeed related side chairs by the emigré chairmaker François Hervé were supplied to George John, 2nd Earl Spencer (1758-1834) for Althorp, Northamptonshire, by Holland and the marchand-mercier Dominique Daguerre during Holland's refurbishment of the house circa 1790. It is possible, therefore, that the whole suite supplied to Slindon, including the present lot and previous writing-table (lot 46), was ordered to designs by Holland, although sadly no record of such a collaboration at Slindon survives.
The painted top is made up of two segmental late 18th-century Neapolitan gouaches of Vesuvius, framing a circular English stipple engraving. The gouaches may well have been purchased by an English traveller on the Grand Tour. A gouache of the same semi-circular form, and of almost exactly the same subject and composition, was purchased by Jonas Brooke while staying in Naples in 1784; it was sold from Mere Hall, Cheshire, Christie's house sale, 23 May 1994, lot 231. The stipple engraving is probably 'The Merry Story' by J.R. Smith. The boy is the same figure as in the companion print 'The Sad Story'.