CIRCA 1785, POSSIBLY BY WILLIAM GATES

MRS. FITZHERBERT AND THE PRINCE OF WALES

The twice-widowed Catholic, Maria Anne Fitzherbert, married George Prince of Wales, heir to George III and future head of the Church of England, in an illicit ceremony held in the drawing room of Mrs. Fitzherbert's Park Street, London, home in December 1785. The 'marriage' was invalid, however, not only because of the bride's Catholicism but because the marriage lacked the King’s permission, as required by the 1772 Royal Marriages Act. The unlawful union was doomed, and in 1794 the Prince was forced to separate from Mrs. Fitzherbert, shortly to marry Caroline of Brunswick (d. 1821), with the King having agreed to settle his son's colossal debts (around £600,000) on condition that the marriage went ahead. But the Prince still declared Mrs. Fitzherbert 'the wife of my heart and soul', so this second union was also destined to fail. The Prince separated from Caroline in 1796, though it would be another three years before he and Mrs. Fitzherbert were reconciled. Once reunited, they apparently lived happily for several years, although the fickle Prince's affair with the Marchioness of Hertford (d.1834) signaled the end of the relationship in 1811. Despite this, the Prince continued to pay Mrs. Fitzherbert a generous allowance and is said to have worn a miniature of her on a chain during his final illness, which was buried with him (M.J. Levy, 'Maria Anne Fitzherbert', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online edition).
This seat furniture may well have been intended for one of Mrs. Fitzherbert's London houses at Park Street or Pall Mall, and later moved to either her Brighton villa, Steine House, (from 1804 to 1837) or 6 Tilney Street, London (from 1796 to 1837). Perhaps an early gift from the Prince who was noted for having 'made [Mrs. Fitzherbert] valuable presents of jewellery and plate and furniture' (W.H. Wilkins, Mrs. Fitzherbert and George IV, vol. I, London, 1905, p. 147), it is conceivable that it may have been at Park Street during the 1785 'marriage' ceremony. By 1786 the Prince was heavily in debt and purportedly furnished a schedule to the King that included 'an item amounting to 54,000, for jewellery, plate, furniture, etc., … for Mrs. Fitzherbert, to set her up in her new establishment in London' (ibid., p. 161).

MRS. FITZHERBERT'S LEGACY

The suite was probably sold after the death of Mrs. Fitzherbert, aged 93, on 27 March 1837. Her executors were instructed to sell the residue of her personal estate and the proceeds were to be invested in 'Government or real Securities', the monies obtained to be held in trust for her adopted daughter, Mary 'Minney' Georgina Emma Dawson Damer and for any children she may have. Revealingly, the income from the trust was intended to free Minney from the debts or control of her husband, clearly wishing her ward never to be beholden as she herself had been (National Archives, PROB 1/86). The 'residue' amounting to £22,046.6s.11d. (after deductions) was recorded in her executors' accounts and included furniture, although it is not itemised (Warwickshire County Record Office, CR114A/536/5, 1837-8). Other items were divided between Minney and Mrs. Fitzherbert's niece, Mary Ann Stafford Jerningham (PROB 1/86).
Steine House and Tilney Street were sold in January and May of 1838, both by Mr. George Robins. Unfortunately no valuation or sale catalogue for the furniture has been found to date but the executors' accounts show that Robins was paid £46.12s.6d for 'Valuations of Furniture & Effects in Tilney Street and at Brighton', suggesting there were significant chattels (CR114A/536/5). Intriguingly, in 1905, W.H. Wilkins wrote, 'Mrs. Fitzherbert's house at Brighton, Steine House, was sold by public auction in January 1838. Her furniture, except for certain articles which Colonel and Mrs. Damer removed to 6 Tilney Street, was also sold by auction a few days previously. Some of it still survives, scattered about in various houses in Brighton' (Wilkins, op. cit., vol. II, p. 319).

THE LATER PROVENANCE

On 18 July 1946 Christie's offered for sale property from the collection of Francis Baring, 4th Baron Northbrook. Commencing with lot 172, the catalogue stated 'This and the six following lots were originally the property of Mrs. FitzHerbert. They were purchased at the sale of her effects at Brighton in 1811 by Col. Greenwood of Brockwood, and were purchased from his descendants by the present owner. Vide ms. history'. This last line indicates that the provenance was supported by documentary evidence at the time of that sale. The suite offered here was then lot 176, 'A suite of Sheraton Satinwood Furniture, banded with rosewood and inlaid with fan ornament ….. consisting of a settee - 6 ft. 6 in. wide, three window seats - 3 ft. 8 in. wide, four armchairs, and four armchairs not upholstered'. The suite was sold for £120.15s. to one 'Stace’, possibly bidding on behalf of Moss Harris.
The remaining six lots in the group may have been en suite with the seat furniture. Lots 172, 174, 175 and 178, were sold to Dr. Walter Gernsheim, and in 1953 were acquired by the Brighton Corporation (they remain in the collection of the Royal Pavilion and Museums, Brighton and Hove). These, which included card tables and a bureau-bookcase, were exhibited in 1962 in the King George IV Bicentenary Regency Exhibition at The Royal Pavilion, in a room setting described as 'furnished to represent a drawing-room of Mrs. Fitzherbert's, with a group of Sheraton furniture, originally at her property, and part of a larger suite used at her house in the Steine at Brighton. The ensemble of furniture and decoration belongs to the early years of the Prince of Wales and Mrs. Fitzherbert at Brighton….' (Exhib. cat., 1962, p. 23, nos. 259-262). In a second 1968 Regency Exhibition, the Fitzherbert furniture was shown with loaned items from the present lot (Catalogue, loc. cit., p. 19). On both occasions it was stated 'In 1811, when Mrs. Fitzherbert's final break with the Prince Regent occurred, the furniture was seized for debt …. bought by Colonel Greenwood of Brockwood Park. It remained in the possession of his family until 1890’. That the furniture was seized in 1811 is doubtful, for whilst Mrs. Fitzherbert was in debt in the late 1780s, largely due to her relationship with the Prince of Wales, by 1811 she was far from destitute. Not only was she well provided for by her late husband, Thomas Fitzherbert (d. 1781) of Swynnerton, Staffordshire, who left her a jointure of £2,000 a year, the remainder of the lease on his London townhouse, its contents, and other property (Wilkins, op. cit., vol. I, p. 22), but in 1810, the Prince doubled her annuity to £6,000. As executors' accounts and Inland Revenue records show, she left a substantial estate upon her death in 1837 (National Archives, IR 59/24). In fact there is no evidence to suggest that Mrs. Fitzherbert’s effects were sold in 1811, though her leasehold property on Pall-mall was to be sold by Mr. Christie in January that year [The Morning Chronicle, 9 January 1811]).
Colonel William Greenwood of Brookwood Park, Hampshire (later renamed Brockwood) was a young Lieutenant Colonel in the Grenadier Guards and part of George IV's circle. He was possibly acquainted with Mrs. Fitzherbert and may have acquired the furniture from the sale of her effects in 1838. Greenwood died in 1872 and the furniture passed to his eldest daughter Evelyn Mary who, with her husband Mr. Charles Higgens, was living lived at Pursers, West Meon, at the time of her death in 1920 (Hampshire Record Office, Electoral Registers, H/CL9/4/301, 303 and 305).
By 1930 Pursers was owned by Lord Northbrook and it is very likely that he acquired Mrs. Fitzherbert's furniture in situ when he purchased the property.

THE QUESTION OF ATTRIBUTION

The illustrious provenance of this suite suggests the St. Martin's Lane cabinetmaker William Gates (fl. 1774 - c. 1800) as possible maker. Gates received a Royal Warrant from George III in July 1777 and supplied important satinwood furniture to George, Prince of Wales, notably in 1781, a pair of satinwood commodes, for the Prince’s new private apartments at The Queen's House (later Buckingham Palace) at a cost of £80 (G. Beard and C. Gilbert ed., Dictionary of English Furniture Makers, 1660-1840, Leeds, 1986, p. 332). The commodes remain in the Royal Collection at Buckingham Palace (J. Roberts ed., George III & Queen Charlotte, Patronage, Collecting & Court Taste, London, 2004, pp. 278-279, no. 284). These patera-inlaid commodes are crossbanded in rosewood and strung in a similar manner to this suite and they employ the same square tapering leg and spade foot.
Another plausible candidate for authorship is the celebrated firm of 18th-century cabinet-makers, Gillows, who supplied furniture to Mrs. Fitzherbert's brother-in-law at Swinnerton in 1788. The firm's Estimate Sketch Books illustrate 1787 designs for a sofa and 'window sofa' of closely-related form for the Earl of Standish (Westminster Archive, folio no. 501, the sketches marked 2164 & 2166). Gillows’ journeymen frequently stamped their work though the initials 'IS' and FS are apparently unrecorded amongst the firms surviving records from the 1780s. Gillows production of satinwood furniture and particularly the use of solid timbers, as in this suite, is well known and they certainly had ready access to fine timber of this type, shipped directly to the port of Lancaster from the West Indies. (S. Stuart, Gillows of Lancaster and London, 1730-1840, Woodbridge, 2008, p. 131).



PROVENANCE FOR THE SUITE:

By repute Mrs. Fitzherbert (d. 1837), either at Steine House, Brighton or 6 Tilney Street, London from whom acquired by
Colonel William Greenwood (d. 1872) of Brockwood Park (previously Brookwood Park), near Bramdean, Hampshire and by descent to
Evelyn Mary Higgens (d. 1920) of 'The Cottage', Bramdean and subsequently 'Pursers', Bramdean, from whom acquired, possibly in situ at 'Pursers' either by
Francis George Baring, 2nd Earl of Northbrook (d. 1929), of Stratton Park, Hampshire, circa 1920 and by descent, or acquired by his cousin
Francis Arthur Baring, 4th Baron Northbrook (d. 1947) of Stratton Park, sold Christie's London, 18 July 1946, lot 176, to 'Stace' (£120.15s.; one of a series of seven lots of related furniture with the same provenance, some probably en suite).
Moss Harris & Sons, New Oxford Street, London, where acquired on 9 April 1951, as 'Old Sheraton satinwood suite of a Settee and eight elbow chairs' (£350).
Professor Sir. Albert Richardson, P.R.A., Avenue House, Ampthill, Bedfordshire

LITERATURE:

A.E. Richardson, diary entries, 20 May and 30 May 1951.
'Two RA's at home: Sir Albert Richardson at Ampthill, James Fitton at Dulwich', House and Garden, XIII, 1958, p. 78, illustrated in the drawing room.
Catalogue of the Regency Exhibition, Brighton, 1966, p. 19 (four armchairs and two window seats from this suite).
S. Houfe, Sir Albert Richardson, The Professor, Luton, 1980, p. 106.

EXHIBITED:

Brighton, The Royal Pavilion, The Regency Exhibition, 1966