MID-19TH CENTURY

The naturalistic carvings representative of 'Nature's Bounty' are composed in the fashion popularized by the sculptor Grinling Gibbons (d.1721). They form part of a 19th century revival led in part by the wood carver William Gibbs Rogers (d.1875), who earned his reputation by imitating and expanding the style of Gibbons. He successfully exhibited in the 1851 Great Exhibition where his carvings were described as 'studies from original fragments by Grinling Gibbons....' (The Crystal Palace Exhibition, Illustrated Catalogue, London 1851, facs. ed., New York, 1970, p.9).

The carvings can be compared to a group supplied by Rogers to Wentworth Blackett Beaumont, 1st Baron Allendale following his marriage to Lady Margaret Anneburgh in 1856 for Bretton Park, Yorkshire and sold by Members of the Beaumont Family, Christie's, London, 6 July 1990, lots 28-31. Another group of carvings attributed to Rogers and incorporating similar game birds and fruiting garlands was sold Christie's, London, 6 February 1997, lot 50.