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拍品專文
The bookcase is based a Robert Adam design dated 1767 and inscribed ‘…for the Right Honourable Lord Frederick Campbell’. Campbell, a politician and younger son of John Campbell, 4th Duke of Argyll, lived at Ardencaple Castle, Scotland and later Combe Bank in Sevenoaks, Kent which he inherited following the death of his father in 1770. Another 1767 drawing depicts a wall elevation with mirror and cabinet, almost certainly made en suite with the present bookcase given the cabinet’s Vitruvian scroll and guilloche design (Soane; Adam vol. 20/31). Eileen Harris notes the measurements for the glass are annotated in both English and French suggesting that these pieces were indeed produced with the mirror plate imported from France.
Adam was involved at both Campbell houses, however the bookcase seems most likely intended for Ardencaple, where the architect provided three variant chimneypiece designs in 1762, two of which display an identical central panel and whirling corner mounts (Adam vol. 22/72-74). Elevations for additions to ‘The house of Lord Frederick Campbell in Scotland’ (1764) include reception rooms, bed chambers, and dressing rooms however it would appear that Adam’s later 1774 plans gothic towers were realized in part (or altered). The Campbell family remained at the house until 1852; it was demolished in the 1950s. Combe Bank in Sevenoaks, Kent was inherited by Campbell after his father’s death in 1770 after which he commissioned Adam to prepare plans to alter the house in 1775-1777; one wing was built at the time and the other wing later but there by 1805. The Adam wings were demolished probably in 1807 following a fire.
While one would ordinarily expect pine case pieces to have been painted, this example retains gilt highlights and is, as Eileen Harris notes, stained to imitate mahogany.
Adam was involved at both Campbell houses, however the bookcase seems most likely intended for Ardencaple, where the architect provided three variant chimneypiece designs in 1762, two of which display an identical central panel and whirling corner mounts (Adam vol. 22/72-74). Elevations for additions to ‘The house of Lord Frederick Campbell in Scotland’ (1764) include reception rooms, bed chambers, and dressing rooms however it would appear that Adam’s later 1774 plans gothic towers were realized in part (or altered). The Campbell family remained at the house until 1852; it was demolished in the 1950s. Combe Bank in Sevenoaks, Kent was inherited by Campbell after his father’s death in 1770 after which he commissioned Adam to prepare plans to alter the house in 1775-1777; one wing was built at the time and the other wing later but there by 1805. The Adam wings were demolished probably in 1807 following a fire.
While one would ordinarily expect pine case pieces to have been painted, this example retains gilt highlights and is, as Eileen Harris notes, stained to imitate mahogany.