Lot 92
92
AN ENGLISH BLACK-AND-GILT LACQUER AND JAPANNED GILT-GESSO LOWBOY
AN ENGLISH BLACK-AND-GILT LACQUER AND JAPANNED GILT-GESSO LOWBOY
AN ENGLISH BLACK-AND-GILT LACQUER AND JAPANNED GILT-GESSO LOWBOY
1 More
AN ENGLISH BLACK-AND-GILT LACQUER AND JAPANNED GILT-GESSO LOWBOY
4 More
AN ENGLISH BLACK-AND-GILT LACQUER AND JAPANNED GILT-GESSO LOWBOY

THE CHINESE LACQUER 18TH CENTURY AND ASSOCIATED, THE OAK CARCASS EARLY 18TH CENTURY AND LATER GILT-GESSOED AND JAPANNED

Details
AN ENGLISH BLACK-AND-GILT LACQUER AND JAPANNED GILT-GESSO LOWBOY
THE CHINESE LACQUER 18TH CENTURY AND ASSOCIATED, THE OAK CARCASS EARLY 18TH CENTURY AND LATER GILT-GESSOED AND JAPANNED
The overhanging top with gilt-carved edge over an arched case with three japanned drawers and similar gilt-gesso border, on foliate cabriole legs and squared feet, with green label F70/32, foliate and urn-cast key
29 in. (73.7 cm.) high, 35 ½ in. (90.2 cm.) wide, 23 in. (58.4 cm.) deep
Provenance
With M. Harris and Son, London.
Geoffrey Hope Hope-Morley, 2nd Baron Hollenden (d. 1977), 7 Connaught Place, London by 1916 (shown in situ in the Boudoir at 7 Connaught Place in a photograph of 1916).
The Rt. Hon. The Lord Hollenden; Sotheby's, London, 25 February 1966, lot 208 (illustrated).
With St. Ouen Antiques, London.
Acquired by Annie Laurie Aitken (1900-1984) and Russell Barnett Aitken (1910-2002) from the above on 30 April 1973.
Literature
Apollo Magazine, February 1966, Sotheby's sale advertisement.
Exhibited
New York, A Special Exhibition on English Furniture Collections, 1994 (by Mallett).

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Lot Essay


THE LORD HOLLENDEN PROVENANCE
Lord Hollenden (1885-1977) was a keen collector of English furniture in the classic tradition of the inter-war years. Like many of the great collectors advised by the legendary R.W. Symonds, he concentrated on carved mahogany of the 1750s and 1760s, with an emphasis on crisply carved detail and original patination. The lowboy appears in a 1916 photograph of Lord Hollenden's London mansion of 7 Connaught Place, W2, placed in the Boudoir. The photo album, elegantly bound in red leather with the Hollenden crest, is a fascinating record of the collection at the time and is annotated with Lord Hollenden's own comments. After he succeeded his father in 1929, some of the pieces were moved to Hall Place in Kent and were destroyed in a fire there during the war in November 1940.

Surviving invoices cover the years from 1912, shortly before his first marriage in 1914, until the 1940s and show that he patronized some of the best dealers of the day: Moss Harris for furniture, Bluett's for Chinese porcelain, Leggatt's for paintings, although the evocative pre-war descriptions, such as 'An old Chippendale serpentine chest', sometimes make exact identification difficult. Other pieces from this collection were sold, the late Anne, Lady Hollenden, Valley Farm, Edgeworth, Gloucestershire; Christie's London, 23 November 2006, lots 1-37.

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