Lot Essay
The overall design of this cabinet is similar to a pattern included in the Society of Upholsterers and Cabinet-Makers' New and Genteel.. Household Furniture, pl. 52, which is undated but was probably published in the 1760s. The acanthus-wrapped Gothic-arched glazing bars are like those on a bookcase, one of four, almost certainly by Chippendale, originally at Sir Rowland Winn's London house, 11 St. James's Square, now at Nostell Priory (C. Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, London, 1978, vol. I, p. 173, and vol. II, fig. 65).
In its unusual form of a bookcase with projecting central drawers in the lower section, combined with exotic carving and mounts, this bookcase is characteristic of the group supplied to Wentworth Woodhouse around 1760 and now attributed to Wright and Elwick of Wakefield, such as a bookcase sold from the house at Christie's London, 15 July 1948, lot 133 (illustrated), and lot 69 in the Wentworth sale, Christie's London, 8 July 1998. For more information on the connection between this cabinet-maker and Wentworth Woodhouse, see the introduction before lot 33 in the Wentworth sale.
In its unusual form of a bookcase with projecting central drawers in the lower section, combined with exotic carving and mounts, this bookcase is characteristic of the group supplied to Wentworth Woodhouse around 1760 and now attributed to Wright and Elwick of Wakefield, such as a bookcase sold from the house at Christie's London, 15 July 1948, lot 133 (illustrated), and lot 69 in the Wentworth sale, Christie's London, 8 July 1998. For more information on the connection between this cabinet-maker and Wentworth Woodhouse, see the introduction before lot 33 in the Wentworth sale.