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Lot Essay
This 'pier-commode' dressing-table combining both writing-table and chest of drawers with hinged top and carrying-handles reflects the fashion for multi-purpose furniture introduced to London bedroom-apartments in the early 18th century. Its form may have developed from the simpler writing-table with fold-out top supported on swing-legs: in October 1690, the court cabinet maker Gerrit Jensen supplied three folding tables for Queen Mary at Kensington Palace (A. Bowett, English Furniture 1660-1714, Woodbridge, 2002, p.213). The decoration, is known as japanning and typifies that proposed in John Stalker & George Parker's influential Treatise of Japanning and Varnishing, 1688. The original red and gilt decoration on the interior relates closely to that on other examples such as one sold in the Houghton sale, Christie's, 8 December 1994, lot 114 (£188,500). The latter featured Roman Tuscan columns instead of the earlier form of baluster columns on the present lot.
The later decoration to the exterior, probably dating from the 19th century, relates closely to the drawings of the architect William Chambers in his Designs of Chinese Buildings, Furniture, Dresses, Machines, and Utensils, 1757. Chambers (d.1796) was architect to the royal family and tutor to the future George III and was also responsible for the Chinese Pagoda at Kew Gardens (1761).
A walnut bachelor's chest and writing-table is in the Irwin Untermyer collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Y. Hackenbroch, English Furniture in the Irwin Untermyer Collection, London, 1958, plate 278, fig. 320). A further related black and gilt chest and writing-table was sold from a deceased estate, Christie's, London, 10 April 2003, lot 130.
Such is the complexity of the early 18th century inheritances within the Portland collection that it is extremely hard to suggest from which line this kneehole desk is most likely to descend. Either of the first two Earls of Oxford may have commissioned it, whether for Wimpole in Cambridgeshire or for a house in London. An alternative is the Portland family itself, whether for Bulstrode in Buckinghamshire or a house in London.
The later decoration to the exterior, probably dating from the 19th century, relates closely to the drawings of the architect William Chambers in his Designs of Chinese Buildings, Furniture, Dresses, Machines, and Utensils, 1757. Chambers (d.1796) was architect to the royal family and tutor to the future George III and was also responsible for the Chinese Pagoda at Kew Gardens (1761).
A walnut bachelor's chest and writing-table is in the Irwin Untermyer collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Y. Hackenbroch, English Furniture in the Irwin Untermyer Collection, London, 1958, plate 278, fig. 320). A further related black and gilt chest and writing-table was sold from a deceased estate, Christie's, London, 10 April 2003, lot 130.
Such is the complexity of the early 18th century inheritances within the Portland collection that it is extremely hard to suggest from which line this kneehole desk is most likely to descend. Either of the first two Earls of Oxford may have commissioned it, whether for Wimpole in Cambridgeshire or for a house in London. An alternative is the Portland family itself, whether for Bulstrode in Buckinghamshire or a house in London.