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Lot Essay
A KENTIAN ‘CORNUCOPIA’ SUITE FROM THE COKE COLLECTION
This important suite of seat furniture, comprising two pairs of side chairs (lots 42 & 43) and a settee (lot 44), is richly carved with cornucopia, swags of fruit, and scrolling acanthus and was designed in the Roman fashion promoted by the artist-architect William Kent (d.1748) and are attributed to William Hallett (d. 1781). The suite was almost certainly supplied to Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester (1697-1759) for Holkham Hall, Norfolk, or to his younger brother Robert Coke (d.1750) for Longford Hall, Derbyshire.
The suite clearly reflects the influence of the architect, designer, and influential tastemaker William Kent and the ornamental motifs relate to furniture from a number of major Kent houses, Holkham being one of the pre-eminent commissions. He conceived a suite of seat furniture for Lady Leicester’s dressing room in the family wing, as well as ‘the statuary marble Chimmney-Piece, Ceiling, Soffas, Chairs, Table Frames, and two Pier-Glasses’ as recorded by Matthew Brettingham jr. in his Plans and Elevations and Sections of Holkham (1773)’ (S. Weber (ed.), William Kent Designing Georgian Britain, New York, 2013, p. 481.) Kent designed similarly resplendent seat-furniture for Chiswick House which shares the same classical vocabulary as the present suite (Op. cit., 2013, p. 475, fig. 18.7).
The walnut and parcel-gilt decorative scheme may also be indebted to Kent, who adopted a similar palette in his decorative painting (L. Wood, The Upholstered Furniture in the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Vol. I, New Haven, 2008, p. 338). The boldly carved cornucopiae, a symbol of abundance seen here in the toprail of both the side chairs and settee, is a motif that was repeated in a number of designs for furniture by Kent. It appeared first on a table he designed for Houghton Hall, Norfolk and he repeated the theme of plenty in Devonshire House where he used the cornucopia motif in the ballroom to adorn the friezes of the mantlepieces and overdoors (op. cit., 2013, p. 482.)
The attribution to the eminent cabinet-maker of Great Newport Street, London, William Hallett Snr. (d.1781), was originally proposed by Lucy Wood and is based on a number of closely related sets of seat furniture which share the same decorative vocabulary and approach to construction as a mahogany pattern chair delivered by Hallett to Holkham in 1738 (op. cit. 2008, p. 355). These include:
A suite at Grimsthorpe Castle, Lincolnshire, probably supplied to Peregrine Bertie, 2nd Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven (1686–1742), comprising a settee and five side chairs;
Three side chairs and a settee in the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Liverpool (inv. 29A-D);
Four side chairs (ensuite with those in the Lady Lever Art Gallery), currently displayed at Chiswick House, London; and
A settee (also ensuite with aforementioned groups in the Lady Lever Gallery and Chiswick House), now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (Acc. no. W.48-1934).
However, the most closely related example is unsurprisingly the aforementioned giltwood suite from the most famous of Coke houses, Holkham Hall, Norfolk. Comprising a settee and four side chairs the Holkham suite of seat furniture is likely to be the set identified in an inventory taken in 1760 shortly after the death of Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester, recording the contents of both Holkham Hall and the late Lord Leicester’s house in London, Thanet House. They are recorded in the drawing room of the London house as ‘2. Settees cover’d w[i]th. needlework, gilt frames. 8 chairs ditto’ (T. Murdoch (ed.), Noble Households, Eighteenth-Century Inventories of Great English Houses, Cambridge, 2006, p. 233). They are likely listed again in an inventory of 1774 taken of Holkham only, and described in Lady Leicester’s Dressing room (H/Inv 8, f.1).
According to the inventories, the suite at Holkham originally comprised two settees and up to eight chairs, although only one settee and four chairs remain today. It is a tantalizing thought that the present suite of seat furniture may have at one time formed part of the same collection, as the side chairs across both sites – Holkham Hall and Longford Hall – share the same sequential numbering. The side chairs at Holkham are numbered III, IV (possibly for VI) and IIV, while the present set are numbered I, II, IIII, and V. Another possibility put forward by Lucy Wood is that both sets of seat furniture originated at Longford Hall and were therefore supplied to Lord Leicester’s younger brother Robert Coke (d. 1750). Stylistically however there are a number of differences between the Longford and Holkham sets. The arms of the settee of the present lot are fully upholstered whereas the settee at Holkham finishes in the middle of the seat rather than at the edge and is open with only the armrest upholstered. The shells to the chairs and settee on the present lot are also blindly carved, whereas those at Holkham are fully detailed. There is also no evidence for the walnut and parcel-gilt scheme seen on the Longford model on the Holkham chairs; the suite at Holkham has been linked to payments to a Mr Jones, with gilding by William Walters, implying that the set was always entirely gilt.
It is highly probable that the above related examples were all produced in the same workshop. Primarily crafted from walnut they share key characteristics, including a distinctive feature found in all but the Lady Lever examples: an internal drop-in seat incorporating caning rather than traditional webbing to support the upholstery a practice idiosyncratic of William Hallett.
THE PROVENANCE
Longford Hall in Derbyshire was originally the seat of the de Longford family, who held the estate from the medieval period. From the 16th century it passed through marriage to the Coke family, marking the beginning of their association with the hall. In the 18th century the hall underwent significant redevelopment in order to reflect the Palladian and neoclassical fashions of the time. By the mid-19th century the estate had fallen into disrepair and much of the building was demolished.
The distinct possibility that the suite was indeed at Holkham Hall cannot be overlooked. Holkham Hall in Norfolk built between 1734 and 1764 for Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester, is a masterpiece of Palladian architecture. Designed by William Kent and Matthew Brettingham, it combines monumental scale with exquisite interiors, including the iconic Marble Hall. The house has remained almost untouched since its completion in 1764 and has passed by direct descent through the Coke family, remaining the seat of the Earl of Leicester. It is interesting to note that in the 19th century there was a great deal of movement of pictures in particular between Holkham and Longford, once both properties had come under the ownership of Coke of Norfolk.
In the 20th century the present suite of seat furniture formed part of two celebrated collections. Firstly William Hesketh Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme (1851-1925), the soap magnate, founder of Lever Brothers and philanthropist for his Hampstead house, The Hill. Today much of Leverhulme’s extensive art and furniture collection forms the nucleus of the Lady Lever Art Gallery at Port Sunlight, created to share his personal art collection with the public, in the environs of the model village he had built to accommodate workers in his soap factory and where the previously discussed comparable settee and three chairs are housed.
The suite later formed part of the collection at Wateringbury Place, which was the remarkable creation of David Style. John Harris described the collection in the introduction to the Christie's 1978 sale catalogue: 'The compositional result is so idiosyncratic as to defy description. My memory is a kaleidoscopic effect of colour and objects, warm and rich, quirky, full of amusement and flashes of inspirational juxtapositions'. Not all items were selected on purely decorative merit, many pieces were of extraordinary quality with distinguished provenance including an Italian ormolu and pietra dura cabinet from Hamilton Palace, pieces from Ashburnham Place and Leeds Castle, a suite of Regency furniture by Morel & Hughes from Northumberland House.
We are grateful to Katherine Hardwick-Kulpa for her assistance in preparing this note.
This important suite of seat furniture, comprising two pairs of side chairs (lots 42 & 43) and a settee (lot 44), is richly carved with cornucopia, swags of fruit, and scrolling acanthus and was designed in the Roman fashion promoted by the artist-architect William Kent (d.1748) and are attributed to William Hallett (d. 1781). The suite was almost certainly supplied to Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester (1697-1759) for Holkham Hall, Norfolk, or to his younger brother Robert Coke (d.1750) for Longford Hall, Derbyshire.
The suite clearly reflects the influence of the architect, designer, and influential tastemaker William Kent and the ornamental motifs relate to furniture from a number of major Kent houses, Holkham being one of the pre-eminent commissions. He conceived a suite of seat furniture for Lady Leicester’s dressing room in the family wing, as well as ‘the statuary marble Chimmney-Piece, Ceiling, Soffas, Chairs, Table Frames, and two Pier-Glasses’ as recorded by Matthew Brettingham jr. in his Plans and Elevations and Sections of Holkham (1773)’ (S. Weber (ed.), William Kent Designing Georgian Britain, New York, 2013, p. 481.) Kent designed similarly resplendent seat-furniture for Chiswick House which shares the same classical vocabulary as the present suite (Op. cit., 2013, p. 475, fig. 18.7).
The walnut and parcel-gilt decorative scheme may also be indebted to Kent, who adopted a similar palette in his decorative painting (L. Wood, The Upholstered Furniture in the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Vol. I, New Haven, 2008, p. 338). The boldly carved cornucopiae, a symbol of abundance seen here in the toprail of both the side chairs and settee, is a motif that was repeated in a number of designs for furniture by Kent. It appeared first on a table he designed for Houghton Hall, Norfolk and he repeated the theme of plenty in Devonshire House where he used the cornucopia motif in the ballroom to adorn the friezes of the mantlepieces and overdoors (op. cit., 2013, p. 482.)
The attribution to the eminent cabinet-maker of Great Newport Street, London, William Hallett Snr. (d.1781), was originally proposed by Lucy Wood and is based on a number of closely related sets of seat furniture which share the same decorative vocabulary and approach to construction as a mahogany pattern chair delivered by Hallett to Holkham in 1738 (op. cit. 2008, p. 355). These include:
A suite at Grimsthorpe Castle, Lincolnshire, probably supplied to Peregrine Bertie, 2nd Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven (1686–1742), comprising a settee and five side chairs;
Three side chairs and a settee in the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Liverpool (inv. 29A-D);
Four side chairs (ensuite with those in the Lady Lever Art Gallery), currently displayed at Chiswick House, London; and
A settee (also ensuite with aforementioned groups in the Lady Lever Gallery and Chiswick House), now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (Acc. no. W.48-1934).
However, the most closely related example is unsurprisingly the aforementioned giltwood suite from the most famous of Coke houses, Holkham Hall, Norfolk. Comprising a settee and four side chairs the Holkham suite of seat furniture is likely to be the set identified in an inventory taken in 1760 shortly after the death of Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester, recording the contents of both Holkham Hall and the late Lord Leicester’s house in London, Thanet House. They are recorded in the drawing room of the London house as ‘2. Settees cover’d w[i]th. needlework, gilt frames. 8 chairs ditto’ (T. Murdoch (ed.), Noble Households, Eighteenth-Century Inventories of Great English Houses, Cambridge, 2006, p. 233). They are likely listed again in an inventory of 1774 taken of Holkham only, and described in Lady Leicester’s Dressing room (H/Inv 8, f.1).
According to the inventories, the suite at Holkham originally comprised two settees and up to eight chairs, although only one settee and four chairs remain today. It is a tantalizing thought that the present suite of seat furniture may have at one time formed part of the same collection, as the side chairs across both sites – Holkham Hall and Longford Hall – share the same sequential numbering. The side chairs at Holkham are numbered III, IV (possibly for VI) and IIV, while the present set are numbered I, II, IIII, and V. Another possibility put forward by Lucy Wood is that both sets of seat furniture originated at Longford Hall and were therefore supplied to Lord Leicester’s younger brother Robert Coke (d. 1750). Stylistically however there are a number of differences between the Longford and Holkham sets. The arms of the settee of the present lot are fully upholstered whereas the settee at Holkham finishes in the middle of the seat rather than at the edge and is open with only the armrest upholstered. The shells to the chairs and settee on the present lot are also blindly carved, whereas those at Holkham are fully detailed. There is also no evidence for the walnut and parcel-gilt scheme seen on the Longford model on the Holkham chairs; the suite at Holkham has been linked to payments to a Mr Jones, with gilding by William Walters, implying that the set was always entirely gilt.
It is highly probable that the above related examples were all produced in the same workshop. Primarily crafted from walnut they share key characteristics, including a distinctive feature found in all but the Lady Lever examples: an internal drop-in seat incorporating caning rather than traditional webbing to support the upholstery a practice idiosyncratic of William Hallett.
THE PROVENANCE
Longford Hall in Derbyshire was originally the seat of the de Longford family, who held the estate from the medieval period. From the 16th century it passed through marriage to the Coke family, marking the beginning of their association with the hall. In the 18th century the hall underwent significant redevelopment in order to reflect the Palladian and neoclassical fashions of the time. By the mid-19th century the estate had fallen into disrepair and much of the building was demolished.
The distinct possibility that the suite was indeed at Holkham Hall cannot be overlooked. Holkham Hall in Norfolk built between 1734 and 1764 for Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester, is a masterpiece of Palladian architecture. Designed by William Kent and Matthew Brettingham, it combines monumental scale with exquisite interiors, including the iconic Marble Hall. The house has remained almost untouched since its completion in 1764 and has passed by direct descent through the Coke family, remaining the seat of the Earl of Leicester. It is interesting to note that in the 19th century there was a great deal of movement of pictures in particular between Holkham and Longford, once both properties had come under the ownership of Coke of Norfolk.
In the 20th century the present suite of seat furniture formed part of two celebrated collections. Firstly William Hesketh Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme (1851-1925), the soap magnate, founder of Lever Brothers and philanthropist for his Hampstead house, The Hill. Today much of Leverhulme’s extensive art and furniture collection forms the nucleus of the Lady Lever Art Gallery at Port Sunlight, created to share his personal art collection with the public, in the environs of the model village he had built to accommodate workers in his soap factory and where the previously discussed comparable settee and three chairs are housed.
The suite later formed part of the collection at Wateringbury Place, which was the remarkable creation of David Style. John Harris described the collection in the introduction to the Christie's 1978 sale catalogue: 'The compositional result is so idiosyncratic as to defy description. My memory is a kaleidoscopic effect of colour and objects, warm and rich, quirky, full of amusement and flashes of inspirational juxtapositions'. Not all items were selected on purely decorative merit, many pieces were of extraordinary quality with distinguished provenance including an Italian ormolu and pietra dura cabinet from Hamilton Palace, pieces from Ashburnham Place and Leeds Castle, a suite of Regency furniture by Morel & Hughes from Northumberland House.
We are grateful to Katherine Hardwick-Kulpa for her assistance in preparing this note.