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Lot Essay
The design of this cabinet, conceived in the Louis XVI fashion based on the designs of the great ébéniste Adam Weisweiler (d. circa 1810), is typical of the furniture produced under the direction of the eminent architect designer Henry Holland (d. 1806). Two strong candidates for its authorship are, the Royal cabinet makers, Seddon, Sons & Shackleton and Marsh and Tatham, both of whom are known to have worked under Holland on Bedfordshire projects; Seddon, Sons & Shackleton at Woburn Abbey, and Oakley House; and Marsh & Tatham at Southill. At Woburn there survives a cabinet, designed to house a model ship, with a closely related base which employs the same design of stretcher, but with a filled central panel. Whilst at Southill there is a series of related furniture, most notably an ormolu-mounted rosewood tambour-top writing-table, again featuring the same distinctive stretcher (see F.J.B. Watson, 'The Furniture and Decoration', Southill, A Regency House, London, 1951, p.24, fig. 39.). Thomas Sheraton (d.1806) described calamander (coromandel) as 'lately introduced into England', he also noted it as 'valuable', so its extensive use, sometimes in the solid, in the construction of this cabinet suggests it was an extremely expensive piece of furniture when first acquired, in keeping with that supplied for the above commissions (see A. Bowett, Woods in British Furniture-Making, 1400-1900, Wetherby, 2012, pp.48-49).
A related lady's dressing table with an ivory maker's tablet engraved 'Seddon, Sons & Shackleton', circa 1795, is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (C. Gilbert, 'Seddon, Sons & Shackleton', Furniture History, 1997, figs.17 and 18) and a related rosewood and marquetry D-shaped side table attributed to the firm, sold Christie's London, 9 June 2011, lot 234 (£30,000 incl.). A related D-shaped side cabinet attributed to Marsh & Tatham, exhibiting the same contrasting decoration and employing the same type of recessed fluted pilasters, was sold Christie's New York, 21 October 1999, lot 216 ($40,250 incl.).
A related lady's dressing table with an ivory maker's tablet engraved 'Seddon, Sons & Shackleton', circa 1795, is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (C. Gilbert, 'Seddon, Sons & Shackleton', Furniture History, 1997, figs.17 and 18) and a related rosewood and marquetry D-shaped side table attributed to the firm, sold Christie's London, 9 June 2011, lot 234 (£30,000 incl.). A related D-shaped side cabinet attributed to Marsh & Tatham, exhibiting the same contrasting decoration and employing the same type of recessed fluted pilasters, was sold Christie's New York, 21 October 1999, lot 216 ($40,250 incl.).