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Lot Essay
The bookcase of finely figured satinwood displays qualities of design and construction which, in combination with its intriguing provenance, are indicative of the work of Thomas Chippendale (d. 1779), the pre-eminent London cabinet-maker. It was almost certainly supplied in circa 1773-75 to Sir Penistone Lamb, 1st Viscount Melbourne (d. 1828) probably for Lady Melbourne’s personal use at Melbourne House, London or Brocket Hall, Hertfordshire and was later inherited by Francis Thomas de Grey Cowper, 7th Earl Cowper (d. 1905). On his demise it passed as part of the Cowper heirlooms to Ethel Anne Priscilla Grenfell (née Fane), Lady Desborough (d. 1953) at Taplow Court, Hertfordshire.
SIR PENISTONE LAMB, VISCOUNT MELBOURNE
Sir Penistone Lamb inherited extensive estates and a fortune of over £500,000 following the death in 1768 of his father, Sir Matthew Lamb, 1st Baronet of Brocket Hall (J. Harris, M. Snodin, ed., Sir William Chambers: Architect to George III, New Haven and London, 1997, p. 89). He entered parliament as a Whig the same year, and two years later was created 1st Viscount Melbourne. He married in 1769, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Roger Milbanke of Halnaby, Yorkshire (d. 1818), and thereafter the couple began to spend freely.
MELBOURNE HOUSE
In April 1771, the Paymaster General, Henry Fox, the future Lord Holland, sold his London house in Piccadilly to Lord Melbourne for £16,500. Melbourne engaged as his architect Sir William Chambers (d. 1796), Robert Adam’s great rival in neoclassical architecture, and employed Thomas Chippendale (d. 1779) to supply the furniture. Lord Melbourne was almost certainly assisted in his choice of cabinet-maker by his wife, Elizabeth, a famous society beauty, political hostess and one of the most influential women of her time. She was depicted in a group portrait by Daniel Gardner in 1775, with her close friends Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, and Anne Damer as the three witches from Macbeth, a reference to their shared and shadowy political machinations as part of the Devonshire House set. Lady Melbourne was no doubt acquainted with Chippendale’s commissions in her native Yorkshire such as at Nostell Priory and Harewood House. Certainly Chambers was deferential to Lady Melbourne on the subject of the decoration of Melbourne House, writing to Lord Melbourne on 29 October 1773, ‘I hope My lady and your Lordship will soon be in town to choose the paper for the 2 floor’, and in November the same year corresponding directly to Lady Melbourne regarding the status of the ‘Chamber floor’ (BL Ms. 41133, f. 116).
By 1774, Lord Melbourne had spent over £24,632 on the house with monies still owing to Chambers. Despite the expense Lord Melbourne was extremely pleased with the end result of ‘one of the best finishd & furnished houses in London’, and cheerfully stated, ‘I believe few people have had better reason than myself to be pleased with so large a sum laid out’ (C. Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, London, 1978, vol. I, p. 261).
Melbourne House became one of the most fashionable society residences in London, largely due to George, Prince of Wales’ (d. 1830) infatuation with, and the influence of its hostess, Lady Melbourne. On 23 November 1783, Lady Mary Coke noted that the Prince presented Lady Melbourne with a portrait of himself by Joshua Reynolds, ‘placed in the great room at Brocket Hall’, and in the previous June remarked on Lord Melbourne’s appointment as Gentleman of the Bedchamber at Carlton House that ‘no doubt is procured him by his Lady’ (S. Birkenhead, Peace in Piccadilly: The Story of Albany, London, 1958, p. 24). Lady Melbourne became the Prince’s unofficial mistress, and he fathered her son, George, born in 1784.
In 1791, as Lady Melbourne dined with Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany (d. 1827), the latter pronounced that he was tired of his house in Whitehall and longed for a house like hers ‘which he particularly admired’ (ibid.). Lady Melbourne responded, probably in jest, that she would enjoy a view over St. James’s Park. And so it transpired that Lord and Lady Melbourne agreed to exchange homes with the Duke, and so relinquished their own splendid mansion on Piccadilly.
THOMAS CHIPPENDALE
Melbourne House was conceivably Chippendale’s first and most important London commission; according to Thomas Haig, Chippendale’s financial partner after 1766, the cost of the furniture was vastly more expensive than that supplied to Harewood House, Yorkshire (F. Bamford, ‘A Shetlander in St. Martin’s Lane, 1775’, Furniture History, vol. 11, 1975, p. 110). Although identification of Chippendale’s furniture is largely unknown, correspondence between Lord Melbourne and Chambers gives some idea of the cabinet-maker’s commission at the house, and the strained relationship that existed between architect and cabinet-maker. On 14 August 1773, Chambers wrote to Lord Melbourne insisting he be consulted by Chippendale on the furniture, ‘Chippendale called upon me yesterday with some Designs for furnishing the rooms which upon the whole seem very well but I wish to be a little conceited about these matters as I am really a Very pretty Connoisseur in furniture be pleased therefore if it is agreeable to your Lordship and My Lady to order him to show me the Drawings at large for tables, Glasses Etc. before they are put in Hand as I think from his small Drawings that some parts may be improved a little. I do not like the method of fitting my Ladys dressing Room wth Girandols and a Glass out of the center and the Girandoles quite irregularly placed Pictures would be much better and in the great room fewer Sophas and more chairs would be better than as Chippendale has designed’ (BL Ms. 41133, f. 107).
Lord Melbourne evidently had a preference for classically plain architecture, and unadorned furniture, which may explain the ornamentation of the present bookcase. On 13 October 1774, he wrote to Chambers regarding the furnishing of the round room at Melbourne House, ‘I am more and more averse to admit any gilding whatever even in the furniture, in my opinion the elegance of that room is from the lightness of well dispersed well executed Ornaments; vastly preferable to any load of gilding we could have introduced. Therefore I am sure that carrying that Simplicity throughout, we shall Succeed much better; and the novelty of a room of that Sort finished without any gilding cannot fail to please’ (BL Ms 411235, f. 50-51). Despite Chambers objection to ungilded furniture in this room it seems his patron’s wishes were adhered to. On 8 September 1775, Thomas Mouat of Garth was led on a guided tour of the house by Haig, and observed, ‘the furniture painted white without any ornament’ in the ‘curious Circular room lighted from a Cupola’ (Bamford, op. cit., p. 110).
In 1997, Joe Friedman supplied ‘near-conclusive proof’ that the ‘Renishaw commode’ was part of the furniture Chippendale supplied to Melbourne House, sold on 18 May 1802 in the ‘York House’ sale. Melbourne House was renamed York House, and later Albany House, after Lord Melbourne exchanged it in December 1791 for a leasehold house in Whitehall with the Duke of York & Albany, (J. Friedman, ‘New Light on the Renishaw Commode’, Furniture History, vol. 33, 1997, pp. 143-149; Mr. Christie, A Catalogue of The Household Furniture at York House, Piccadilly, 18 May 1802 and following day, lot 178). Friedman suggests that most of the original furnishings from Melbourne House were acquired by the Duke of York ‘as indicated by documents relating to the transaction preserved in the archives of the Trustees of Albany’ (Friedman, op. cit., p. 146). However, whilst almost certainly commissioned for Melbourne House is more likely to have been moved to Brocket Hall (or another Melbourne property) when the London house was exchanged with that of the Duke of York in 1791.
THE COWPER HEIRLOOMS
Emily Anne (née Lamb), Viscountess Palmerston (d. 1869), who married Peter Leopold Louis Francis Nassau Clavering-Cowper, 5th Earl Cowper (d. 1837) of Panshanger, Hertfordshire, inherited the Melbourne estates, including Brocket Hall, after the deaths of her brothers William and Frederick in 1848 and 1853. The bookcase was then no doubt bequeathed to her grandson, Francis Thomas de Grey Cowper, 7th Earl Cowper (d. 1905), and when he died went as part of the Cowper heirlooms to his niece, Ethel Anne Priscilla Grenfell (née Fane), Lady Desborough (d. 1952). Brocket Hall was left initially to the 7th Earl’s sister, Lady Amabel Kerr, and by descent to her husband, Admiral Lord Walter Kerr who sold the house in 1923. Some of the Melbourne furniture including this bookcase, and the Panshanger cabinets had, however, already been removed to Panshanger from Brocket Hall (and possibly elsewhere) and were part of Lady Desborough’s Cowper inheritance. Unfortunately, there is a scarcity of records in the family archive which refer to the furniture but it may be significant that when this bookcase was recorded at Taplow Court, Hertfordshire in 1945 it was in Lady Desborough’s bedroom. Lady Desborough was naturally extremely fond of her maternal Cowper family who had essentially raised her as an adopted daughter at Wrest Park, Panshanger, Brocket Hall and 4 St. James’s Square after her parents died prematurely. Given its placement in her private rooms the bookcase was clearly an object that held a special significance to Lady Melbourne and could reasonably be identified as the 1st Lady Melbourne's bookcase.
THE DESIGN
Renowned for creating magnificent mahogany, rosewood or ‘japanned’ furniture, this bookcase excels for being veneered predominantly in satinwood, a timber fashionable from the late 1760s with the advent of neo-Classicism, and its stylistic and constructional attributes distinguish it as by Chippendale.
* Chippendale habitually allowed the natural beauty of the wood to determine the decoration; the sophisticated quarter veneering of the ovals on the lower section of this bookcase is particularly fine, the figured satinwood arranged to form a lozenge pattern. The linear form of the bookcase is emphasised by fine ebony and boxwood stringing which frames the outlines, and the ornament is further enhanced with tulipwood crossbanding. This configuration relates to the hexagonal rosewood veneer pattern, bordered with crossbanding, displayed on Chippendale's Dumfries House bookcase, and the boxwood and ebony stringing on much of Chippendale’s satinwood and marquetry furniture such as the magnificent Diana and Minerva commode, 1773, and a library table made for Harewood House, Yorkshire, circa 1771 (illustrated Gilbert, op. cit., vol. II, figs. 63, 235 and 442-443). The unadorned veneers of this bookcase may indicate the influence of Thomas Chippendale the Younger (d. 1822) whose influence in the firm increased in the 1770s, and who in his subsequent commission of 1802 for Sir Richard Colt Hoare at Stourhead, Wiltshire was producing satinwood armchairs, tables and pole fire screens highlighted with fine stringing (J. Goodison, 'Thomas Chippendale the Younger at Stourhead’, Furniture History, vol. 41, 2005, figs. 10, 12, 15 and 19). The plain escutcheons bordered with boxwood and the absence of any brass mounts reinforces the aesthetic appearance of this bookcase. The use of less highly figured satinwood veneer on the sides may suggest that the bookcase was intended for an architectural recess, and interestingly, Chambers writes of ‘Niches’ for ‘Glasses’ and ‘Sophas’ at the house (BL Ms 411235, f. 51).
* The design of the upper section with centred silvered (mirrored) oval panels surrounded by glazed rectangular panels joined by foliate bars to the framing is closely related to that of a mahogany bookcase supplied by Chippendale for Harewood House, Yorkshire, and descended with the Earls of Harewood. Close inspection of the latter shows that it may have had a central pediment, as on the bookcase offered here. The choice of oval silvered and veneered panels on the present lot suggests a date of manufacture before 1775; from the late 1760s to early 1770s there was a progression from oval to circular panels, possibly under the influence of Chippendale the Younger’s, as seen on the Lascelles bookcase, on a blue and white japanned press bed fronted by mirror plates and sham drawers for David Garrick, circa 1775, and as carved decoration on the Brocket Hall library bookcases, circa 1773 (Gilbert, op. cit., figs. 62 and 76-80). Intriguingly, the Panshanger cabinets, circa 1773, almost certainly made for Melbourne House, have round glazed panels (ibid., fig. 103).
* The 1st edition of Chippendale's Director includes designs for this form of Library bookcase with broken triangular pediment surmounting a glazed upper section above a panelled lower section suggesting that the model remained fashionable from the mid-1750s into the 1770s (plates LXI, LXII, LXIII, LXVII, LXIX).
* The tapered block feet, atypical of a Chippendale bookcase or cabinet, find parallels in a set of mahogany dining-chairs of circa 1772, supplied by Chippendale for Goldsborough Hall, Yorkshire, and in the japanned hall chairs, circa 1775, supplied to Garrick (now in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London) (Gilbert, op. cit., figs. 147 and 155), while the Panshanger cabinets also have tapered block feet (ibid., fig. 103).
* The bookcase is applied with a red wash to the underside and backboards both interior and exterior, seemingly a characteristic of Chippendale's work.
* Finally, the absence of nailing and pack thread (used to secure protective covers for transport) suggests the bookcase was made not for a country property but rather for a London house in close proximity to Chippendale’s business premises at St. Martin’s Lane.
SIR PENISTONE LAMB, VISCOUNT MELBOURNE
Sir Penistone Lamb inherited extensive estates and a fortune of over £500,000 following the death in 1768 of his father, Sir Matthew Lamb, 1st Baronet of Brocket Hall (J. Harris, M. Snodin, ed., Sir William Chambers: Architect to George III, New Haven and London, 1997, p. 89). He entered parliament as a Whig the same year, and two years later was created 1st Viscount Melbourne. He married in 1769, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Roger Milbanke of Halnaby, Yorkshire (d. 1818), and thereafter the couple began to spend freely.
MELBOURNE HOUSE
In April 1771, the Paymaster General, Henry Fox, the future Lord Holland, sold his London house in Piccadilly to Lord Melbourne for £16,500. Melbourne engaged as his architect Sir William Chambers (d. 1796), Robert Adam’s great rival in neoclassical architecture, and employed Thomas Chippendale (d. 1779) to supply the furniture. Lord Melbourne was almost certainly assisted in his choice of cabinet-maker by his wife, Elizabeth, a famous society beauty, political hostess and one of the most influential women of her time. She was depicted in a group portrait by Daniel Gardner in 1775, with her close friends Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, and Anne Damer as the three witches from Macbeth, a reference to their shared and shadowy political machinations as part of the Devonshire House set. Lady Melbourne was no doubt acquainted with Chippendale’s commissions in her native Yorkshire such as at Nostell Priory and Harewood House. Certainly Chambers was deferential to Lady Melbourne on the subject of the decoration of Melbourne House, writing to Lord Melbourne on 29 October 1773, ‘I hope My lady and your Lordship will soon be in town to choose the paper for the 2 floor’, and in November the same year corresponding directly to Lady Melbourne regarding the status of the ‘Chamber floor’ (BL Ms. 41133, f. 116).
By 1774, Lord Melbourne had spent over £24,632 on the house with monies still owing to Chambers. Despite the expense Lord Melbourne was extremely pleased with the end result of ‘one of the best finishd & furnished houses in London’, and cheerfully stated, ‘I believe few people have had better reason than myself to be pleased with so large a sum laid out’ (C. Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, London, 1978, vol. I, p. 261).
Melbourne House became one of the most fashionable society residences in London, largely due to George, Prince of Wales’ (d. 1830) infatuation with, and the influence of its hostess, Lady Melbourne. On 23 November 1783, Lady Mary Coke noted that the Prince presented Lady Melbourne with a portrait of himself by Joshua Reynolds, ‘placed in the great room at Brocket Hall’, and in the previous June remarked on Lord Melbourne’s appointment as Gentleman of the Bedchamber at Carlton House that ‘no doubt is procured him by his Lady’ (S. Birkenhead, Peace in Piccadilly: The Story of Albany, London, 1958, p. 24). Lady Melbourne became the Prince’s unofficial mistress, and he fathered her son, George, born in 1784.
In 1791, as Lady Melbourne dined with Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany (d. 1827), the latter pronounced that he was tired of his house in Whitehall and longed for a house like hers ‘which he particularly admired’ (ibid.). Lady Melbourne responded, probably in jest, that she would enjoy a view over St. James’s Park. And so it transpired that Lord and Lady Melbourne agreed to exchange homes with the Duke, and so relinquished their own splendid mansion on Piccadilly.
THOMAS CHIPPENDALE
Melbourne House was conceivably Chippendale’s first and most important London commission; according to Thomas Haig, Chippendale’s financial partner after 1766, the cost of the furniture was vastly more expensive than that supplied to Harewood House, Yorkshire (F. Bamford, ‘A Shetlander in St. Martin’s Lane, 1775’, Furniture History, vol. 11, 1975, p. 110). Although identification of Chippendale’s furniture is largely unknown, correspondence between Lord Melbourne and Chambers gives some idea of the cabinet-maker’s commission at the house, and the strained relationship that existed between architect and cabinet-maker. On 14 August 1773, Chambers wrote to Lord Melbourne insisting he be consulted by Chippendale on the furniture, ‘Chippendale called upon me yesterday with some Designs for furnishing the rooms which upon the whole seem very well but I wish to be a little conceited about these matters as I am really a Very pretty Connoisseur in furniture be pleased therefore if it is agreeable to your Lordship and My Lady to order him to show me the Drawings at large for tables, Glasses Etc. before they are put in Hand as I think from his small Drawings that some parts may be improved a little. I do not like the method of fitting my Ladys dressing Room wth Girandols and a Glass out of the center and the Girandoles quite irregularly placed Pictures would be much better and in the great room fewer Sophas and more chairs would be better than as Chippendale has designed’ (BL Ms. 41133, f. 107).
Lord Melbourne evidently had a preference for classically plain architecture, and unadorned furniture, which may explain the ornamentation of the present bookcase. On 13 October 1774, he wrote to Chambers regarding the furnishing of the round room at Melbourne House, ‘I am more and more averse to admit any gilding whatever even in the furniture, in my opinion the elegance of that room is from the lightness of well dispersed well executed Ornaments; vastly preferable to any load of gilding we could have introduced. Therefore I am sure that carrying that Simplicity throughout, we shall Succeed much better; and the novelty of a room of that Sort finished without any gilding cannot fail to please’ (BL Ms 411235, f. 50-51). Despite Chambers objection to ungilded furniture in this room it seems his patron’s wishes were adhered to. On 8 September 1775, Thomas Mouat of Garth was led on a guided tour of the house by Haig, and observed, ‘the furniture painted white without any ornament’ in the ‘curious Circular room lighted from a Cupola’ (Bamford, op. cit., p. 110).
In 1997, Joe Friedman supplied ‘near-conclusive proof’ that the ‘Renishaw commode’ was part of the furniture Chippendale supplied to Melbourne House, sold on 18 May 1802 in the ‘York House’ sale. Melbourne House was renamed York House, and later Albany House, after Lord Melbourne exchanged it in December 1791 for a leasehold house in Whitehall with the Duke of York & Albany, (J. Friedman, ‘New Light on the Renishaw Commode’, Furniture History, vol. 33, 1997, pp. 143-149; Mr. Christie, A Catalogue of The Household Furniture at York House, Piccadilly, 18 May 1802 and following day, lot 178). Friedman suggests that most of the original furnishings from Melbourne House were acquired by the Duke of York ‘as indicated by documents relating to the transaction preserved in the archives of the Trustees of Albany’ (Friedman, op. cit., p. 146). However, whilst almost certainly commissioned for Melbourne House is more likely to have been moved to Brocket Hall (or another Melbourne property) when the London house was exchanged with that of the Duke of York in 1791.
THE COWPER HEIRLOOMS
Emily Anne (née Lamb), Viscountess Palmerston (d. 1869), who married Peter Leopold Louis Francis Nassau Clavering-Cowper, 5th Earl Cowper (d. 1837) of Panshanger, Hertfordshire, inherited the Melbourne estates, including Brocket Hall, after the deaths of her brothers William and Frederick in 1848 and 1853. The bookcase was then no doubt bequeathed to her grandson, Francis Thomas de Grey Cowper, 7th Earl Cowper (d. 1905), and when he died went as part of the Cowper heirlooms to his niece, Ethel Anne Priscilla Grenfell (née Fane), Lady Desborough (d. 1952). Brocket Hall was left initially to the 7th Earl’s sister, Lady Amabel Kerr, and by descent to her husband, Admiral Lord Walter Kerr who sold the house in 1923. Some of the Melbourne furniture including this bookcase, and the Panshanger cabinets had, however, already been removed to Panshanger from Brocket Hall (and possibly elsewhere) and were part of Lady Desborough’s Cowper inheritance. Unfortunately, there is a scarcity of records in the family archive which refer to the furniture but it may be significant that when this bookcase was recorded at Taplow Court, Hertfordshire in 1945 it was in Lady Desborough’s bedroom. Lady Desborough was naturally extremely fond of her maternal Cowper family who had essentially raised her as an adopted daughter at Wrest Park, Panshanger, Brocket Hall and 4 St. James’s Square after her parents died prematurely. Given its placement in her private rooms the bookcase was clearly an object that held a special significance to Lady Melbourne and could reasonably be identified as the 1st Lady Melbourne's bookcase.
THE DESIGN
Renowned for creating magnificent mahogany, rosewood or ‘japanned’ furniture, this bookcase excels for being veneered predominantly in satinwood, a timber fashionable from the late 1760s with the advent of neo-Classicism, and its stylistic and constructional attributes distinguish it as by Chippendale.
* Chippendale habitually allowed the natural beauty of the wood to determine the decoration; the sophisticated quarter veneering of the ovals on the lower section of this bookcase is particularly fine, the figured satinwood arranged to form a lozenge pattern. The linear form of the bookcase is emphasised by fine ebony and boxwood stringing which frames the outlines, and the ornament is further enhanced with tulipwood crossbanding. This configuration relates to the hexagonal rosewood veneer pattern, bordered with crossbanding, displayed on Chippendale's Dumfries House bookcase, and the boxwood and ebony stringing on much of Chippendale’s satinwood and marquetry furniture such as the magnificent Diana and Minerva commode, 1773, and a library table made for Harewood House, Yorkshire, circa 1771 (illustrated Gilbert, op. cit., vol. II, figs. 63, 235 and 442-443). The unadorned veneers of this bookcase may indicate the influence of Thomas Chippendale the Younger (d. 1822) whose influence in the firm increased in the 1770s, and who in his subsequent commission of 1802 for Sir Richard Colt Hoare at Stourhead, Wiltshire was producing satinwood armchairs, tables and pole fire screens highlighted with fine stringing (J. Goodison, 'Thomas Chippendale the Younger at Stourhead’, Furniture History, vol. 41, 2005, figs. 10, 12, 15 and 19). The plain escutcheons bordered with boxwood and the absence of any brass mounts reinforces the aesthetic appearance of this bookcase. The use of less highly figured satinwood veneer on the sides may suggest that the bookcase was intended for an architectural recess, and interestingly, Chambers writes of ‘Niches’ for ‘Glasses’ and ‘Sophas’ at the house (BL Ms 411235, f. 51).
* The design of the upper section with centred silvered (mirrored) oval panels surrounded by glazed rectangular panels joined by foliate bars to the framing is closely related to that of a mahogany bookcase supplied by Chippendale for Harewood House, Yorkshire, and descended with the Earls of Harewood. Close inspection of the latter shows that it may have had a central pediment, as on the bookcase offered here. The choice of oval silvered and veneered panels on the present lot suggests a date of manufacture before 1775; from the late 1760s to early 1770s there was a progression from oval to circular panels, possibly under the influence of Chippendale the Younger’s, as seen on the Lascelles bookcase, on a blue and white japanned press bed fronted by mirror plates and sham drawers for David Garrick, circa 1775, and as carved decoration on the Brocket Hall library bookcases, circa 1773 (Gilbert, op. cit., figs. 62 and 76-80). Intriguingly, the Panshanger cabinets, circa 1773, almost certainly made for Melbourne House, have round glazed panels (ibid., fig. 103).
* The 1st edition of Chippendale's Director includes designs for this form of Library bookcase with broken triangular pediment surmounting a glazed upper section above a panelled lower section suggesting that the model remained fashionable from the mid-1750s into the 1770s (plates LXI, LXII, LXIII, LXVII, LXIX).
* The tapered block feet, atypical of a Chippendale bookcase or cabinet, find parallels in a set of mahogany dining-chairs of circa 1772, supplied by Chippendale for Goldsborough Hall, Yorkshire, and in the japanned hall chairs, circa 1775, supplied to Garrick (now in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London) (Gilbert, op. cit., figs. 147 and 155), while the Panshanger cabinets also have tapered block feet (ibid., fig. 103).
* The bookcase is applied with a red wash to the underside and backboards both interior and exterior, seemingly a characteristic of Chippendale's work.
* Finally, the absence of nailing and pack thread (used to secure protective covers for transport) suggests the bookcase was made not for a country property but rather for a London house in close proximity to Chippendale’s business premises at St. Martin’s Lane.