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拍品專文
GEORGE BROOKSHAW
These beautifully decorated secretaire bookcases are the distinctive work of London cabinet-maker George Brookshaw (1751-1823), described on his bill header to the Prince of Wales (for Carlton House in 1783) as ‘Peintre Ebeniste par Extraordinaire’. As the title suggests he was a cabinet-maker with an unusual and exceptional skill in the art of painted decoration, who created a relatively small but unique body of work that includes pier tables, cabinets, commodes, bookcases and chimneypieces. He differed from most of his contemporaries by choosing the medium of paint to create luxurious furnishings in the Adam style, without the use of veneers, mounts or marquetry. His work is characterised by his large repertoire of well-observed flowers, including jasmine, roses and morning glory, often depicted in garlands or baskets, in combination with oval medallions after paintings by Angelica Kauffman, R.A. (1741-1807) filled with figural, landscape and historical scenes.
Royal and aristocratic patrons are known to have commissioned work from Brookshaw, including George, Prince of Wales (later George IV) for Carlton House, the Duke of Beaufort for Badminton House, William Blathwayt for either his London townhouse on Golden Square or Dyrham Park, and almost certainly Colonel Sir Mark Wood (1750-1829) who commissioned these spectacular cabinets for Piercefield Park, Monmouthshire, which he purchased in 1793.
PIERCEFIELD PARK, MONMOUTHSHIRE
Piercefield Park, was designed by John Soane for George Smith in 1785 and work began in 1792, however after running into financial difficulty the work was completed subsequently by Joseph Bonomi for the new owner Colonel Mark Wood. Contemporary descriptions of the house suggest that Brookshaw's painterly influence was strongly felt throughout the interior decoration. Charles Heath wrote in 1801 of the Piercefield interiors having a strong neoclassical influence where ‘In the Billiard [Smoking] Room are equally pleasing subjects; and even the Chimney Pieces exhibit fanciful efforts of the Painter’s talents’. These cabinets probably date from 1793-1794, just after Wood's purchase of the property because after that date Brookshaw drops from the Westminster rate books and is assumed to have stopped making furniture, instead occupying himself as a published illustrator and author of horticultural works under the pseudonym G. Brown (L. Wood, ‘George Brookshaw: The case of the vanishing cabinet-maker: Part 1’, Apollo, May 1991, p. 302.) The interiors of Piercefield no longer exist – it is now a ruin – but the 1923 particulars of the sale list four ‘fine mantelpieces decorated by Angelica Kauffman’ in what had been the morning room, the smoking room, and two of the principal bedrooms. One of these chimneypieces was donated to the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1944, and has proved vital in Lucy Wood’s study of Brookshaw, and in piecing together the details of the Piercefield commission, and other related commissions undertaken in the late 1770s, 80s and early 1790s.
THE COMMISSION
Given that Brookshaw is not listed in the London directories after 1794, Wood therefore asserts that ‘Piercefield may therefore represent the last high point of Brookshaw’s practice, and it certainly reflects his particular forte in chimney-pieces’ (L. Wood, ‘George Brookshaw: ‘Peintre Ebeniste par Extraordinaire’, The case of the varnishing cabinet-maker: Part 2’, Apollo, June 1991, p. 387). The Brookshaw attribution for these secretaire-cabinets is based on close study of the chimneypiece in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, a panel of which is inscribed to the reverse 'Mr. Brookshaw/Cabinet Maker/Great Marlborough Street/London'. The chimneypiece and the pair of secretaire-cabinets have very similar features in their decorative schemes, which leads to the conclusion that they are by the same hand. Both employ the unusual technique of painting onto rectangular copper panels, the use of rectangular panels centred by oval medallions filled with historical or landscape scenes, and similar treatment in the handling of figures and well-observed flora.
The attribution is strengthened by comparison with a demi-lune commode formerly at Dyrham Park (but thought to have been commissioned for William Blathwayt’s London townhouse originally), which features very similar painted oval medallions to its top to those seen on the present pair of secretaire-bookcases. Both derived from Angelica Kauffman paintings. A secretaire-cabinet of almost identical form made for Sir William Middleton at Shrubland Park circa 1795 is also considered to be Brookshaw’s work and is helpful in explaining the attribution. It differs in decoration – with the central door painted with swagged drapery and a basket of flowers surrounded by sprigs of jasmine (ibid., pl. 2), but relates to a description of the principle item on Brookshaw’s Carlton House bill (for the Prince of Wales) dated 16 December 1783: ‘To Making an Elegenat Commode Highly finished with a Basket of Flowers Paintined in the fron of the body & springs of jesamine all of the Tops & Do on the fronts of the body with carv’d & gilt mouldings & Legs’. Another chimneypiece from the Piercefield commission is now thought to be installed in Home House, Portman Square, London.
THE MEDALLIONS
The central oval medallions derive from engravings of paintings by Angelica Kauffman, R.A. (d. 1810), the historical painter and one of the two female founding members of the Royal Academy, London. They depict Cupid disarmed by Euphrosyne and an adaptation of Cupid distressed by three nymphs, and it is thought they were taken from engravings of the original works by Thomas Burke (1784) and W.W. Ryland (1777), respectively (C.G. Boerner, Angelica Kauffman und ihre Zeit, Dusseldorf, 1979, nos. 28 and 142). The two architectural views on one cabinet depict Whitton Park, Middlesex, and Shardeloes, Buckinghamshire, taken from engravings in Harrison & Co., Picturesque Views of the Principal Seats of the Nobility and Gentry in England and Wales, circa 1788.
These beautifully decorated secretaire bookcases are the distinctive work of London cabinet-maker George Brookshaw (1751-1823), described on his bill header to the Prince of Wales (for Carlton House in 1783) as ‘Peintre Ebeniste par Extraordinaire’. As the title suggests he was a cabinet-maker with an unusual and exceptional skill in the art of painted decoration, who created a relatively small but unique body of work that includes pier tables, cabinets, commodes, bookcases and chimneypieces. He differed from most of his contemporaries by choosing the medium of paint to create luxurious furnishings in the Adam style, without the use of veneers, mounts or marquetry. His work is characterised by his large repertoire of well-observed flowers, including jasmine, roses and morning glory, often depicted in garlands or baskets, in combination with oval medallions after paintings by Angelica Kauffman, R.A. (1741-1807) filled with figural, landscape and historical scenes.
Royal and aristocratic patrons are known to have commissioned work from Brookshaw, including George, Prince of Wales (later George IV) for Carlton House, the Duke of Beaufort for Badminton House, William Blathwayt for either his London townhouse on Golden Square or Dyrham Park, and almost certainly Colonel Sir Mark Wood (1750-1829) who commissioned these spectacular cabinets for Piercefield Park, Monmouthshire, which he purchased in 1793.
PIERCEFIELD PARK, MONMOUTHSHIRE
Piercefield Park, was designed by John Soane for George Smith in 1785 and work began in 1792, however after running into financial difficulty the work was completed subsequently by Joseph Bonomi for the new owner Colonel Mark Wood. Contemporary descriptions of the house suggest that Brookshaw's painterly influence was strongly felt throughout the interior decoration. Charles Heath wrote in 1801 of the Piercefield interiors having a strong neoclassical influence where ‘In the Billiard [Smoking] Room are equally pleasing subjects; and even the Chimney Pieces exhibit fanciful efforts of the Painter’s talents’. These cabinets probably date from 1793-1794, just after Wood's purchase of the property because after that date Brookshaw drops from the Westminster rate books and is assumed to have stopped making furniture, instead occupying himself as a published illustrator and author of horticultural works under the pseudonym G. Brown (L. Wood, ‘George Brookshaw: The case of the vanishing cabinet-maker: Part 1’, Apollo, May 1991, p. 302.) The interiors of Piercefield no longer exist – it is now a ruin – but the 1923 particulars of the sale list four ‘fine mantelpieces decorated by Angelica Kauffman’ in what had been the morning room, the smoking room, and two of the principal bedrooms. One of these chimneypieces was donated to the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1944, and has proved vital in Lucy Wood’s study of Brookshaw, and in piecing together the details of the Piercefield commission, and other related commissions undertaken in the late 1770s, 80s and early 1790s.
THE COMMISSION
Given that Brookshaw is not listed in the London directories after 1794, Wood therefore asserts that ‘Piercefield may therefore represent the last high point of Brookshaw’s practice, and it certainly reflects his particular forte in chimney-pieces’ (L. Wood, ‘George Brookshaw: ‘Peintre Ebeniste par Extraordinaire’, The case of the varnishing cabinet-maker: Part 2’, Apollo, June 1991, p. 387). The Brookshaw attribution for these secretaire-cabinets is based on close study of the chimneypiece in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, a panel of which is inscribed to the reverse 'Mr. Brookshaw/Cabinet Maker/Great Marlborough Street/London'. The chimneypiece and the pair of secretaire-cabinets have very similar features in their decorative schemes, which leads to the conclusion that they are by the same hand. Both employ the unusual technique of painting onto rectangular copper panels, the use of rectangular panels centred by oval medallions filled with historical or landscape scenes, and similar treatment in the handling of figures and well-observed flora.
The attribution is strengthened by comparison with a demi-lune commode formerly at Dyrham Park (but thought to have been commissioned for William Blathwayt’s London townhouse originally), which features very similar painted oval medallions to its top to those seen on the present pair of secretaire-bookcases. Both derived from Angelica Kauffman paintings. A secretaire-cabinet of almost identical form made for Sir William Middleton at Shrubland Park circa 1795 is also considered to be Brookshaw’s work and is helpful in explaining the attribution. It differs in decoration – with the central door painted with swagged drapery and a basket of flowers surrounded by sprigs of jasmine (ibid., pl. 2), but relates to a description of the principle item on Brookshaw’s Carlton House bill (for the Prince of Wales) dated 16 December 1783: ‘To Making an Elegenat Commode Highly finished with a Basket of Flowers Paintined in the fron of the body & springs of jesamine all of the Tops & Do on the fronts of the body with carv’d & gilt mouldings & Legs’. Another chimneypiece from the Piercefield commission is now thought to be installed in Home House, Portman Square, London.
THE MEDALLIONS
The central oval medallions derive from engravings of paintings by Angelica Kauffman, R.A. (d. 1810), the historical painter and one of the two female founding members of the Royal Academy, London. They depict Cupid disarmed by Euphrosyne and an adaptation of Cupid distressed by three nymphs, and it is thought they were taken from engravings of the original works by Thomas Burke (1784) and W.W. Ryland (1777), respectively (C.G. Boerner, Angelica Kauffman und ihre Zeit, Dusseldorf, 1979, nos. 28 and 142). The two architectural views on one cabinet depict Whitton Park, Middlesex, and Shardeloes, Buckinghamshire, taken from engravings in Harrison & Co., Picturesque Views of the Principal Seats of the Nobility and Gentry in England and Wales, circa 1788.