Lot Essay
This library-table, with drawer-filled 'altar' drum and hollow-sided 'altar' commode-pedestal, is garlanded by Roman-acanthus flowers within ribboned medallions and tablets. It was made by Thomas Chippendale (d. 1779) in the 'antique' manner promoted by George III's architect Sir William Chambers (d. 1796), for the politician Sir Penistone Lamb, 1st Viscount Melbourne (d. 1819). The S-pattern key-holes are a feature often found on furniture by Chippendale, and they can be seen on the bookcases in the Library at Brocket Hall, Lord Melbourne's Hertfordshire seat which was furnished by Chippendale between 1772 and 1775 (C. Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, London, 1978, vol. II, figs. 77, 80 and 267). The foliage marquetry medallions surrounding the key-holes also relate to those on a bureau dressing-table, supplied circa 1770 by Chippendale for Harewood House, Yorkshire, and now in the Victoria and Albert Museum (Gilbert, ibid., vol. II, fig. 430 and D. Fitzgerald, Georgian Furniture, London, 1969, no. 107).
It is possible that this grand library table was supplied by Chippendale for Lord Melbourne's London house. Lord Melbourne embarked on the building of his celebrated Piccadilly mansion, Melbourne House, in 1771, shortly after his marriage to Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Roger Milbanke of Halnaby, Yorkshire. Melbourne House was the most important of Sir William Chambers' town houses, and its furnishing is considered to be Chippendale's premier London commission. According to Thomas Mouat of Garth, who visited it in 1775, it was 'esteemed one of the best finished and furnished houses in London'. Its architect also anounced 'All the world is delighted with it, because the few that give the Ton are pleased'. It was Lord Melbourne's furnishings that once caused a dispute between Chippendale and Chambers, leading the architect to boast himself as a 'Very pretty Connoisseur in furniture'. The table's elegantly scrolled pilasters, recalling antique tripods, harmonises with Chamber's architecture, which likewise quoted from Greek and Roman antiquity. Its eight ivory-numbered drawers have golden brass 'escutcheon' medallions framed in whorled acanthus relating to a rose-ornament pattern that Chambers published as suitable for circular ceilings in his Treatise on the Decorative Part of Civil Architecture, 1759. This practical form of desk would also have been suitable for the Melbourne House library, with its large elliptic bay overlooking the gardens (J. Harris and M. Snodin, Sir William Chambers, London, 1997, figs. 119 and 120). The Melbournes made their Piccadilly house a rallying point for London society, and it was the birthplace of the 2nd Viscount, who served as Prime Minister to William IV and Queen Victoria. In 1793, the furnished house became known as York House, when it became the London residence of King George III's brother, and its name was changed again following its conversion in 1802 to an apartment building known as Albany. In that year, the contents of the Library included a 'A mahogany writing table' which was listed as lot 209 but substituted by a bed, in 'The Catalogue of the Household Furniture ... The Property of His Royal Highness the Duke of York, sold by Mr. Christie on the Premises' at York House on 18 and 19 May 1802.
At the same time that Chippendale was fitting out the London library, he also supplied bookcases for the library at Brocket Hall, Hertfordshire, Lord Melbourne's Hertfordshire seat and it is equally possible that this library table was supplied for that room. The house, set in classic English parkland, was built for Lord Melbourne between 1760 and 1775 by James Paine, the only architect who subscribed to Chippendale's Director, 1754. He devoted twelve plates in his folio work Noblemen and Gentlemen's Houses (1783) to plans, elevations and sections of this sumptuous building which, he stated in the prefatory notes 'the noble owner has spared no expense in furnishing and perfectly compleating'. The 2nd Viscount Melbourne, Queen Victoria's first Prime Minister, spent time at Brocket but during the second half of the 19th Century it was let as a furnished house and the property was sold when Lord Mount Stephen, who held the lease for many years, died in 1922.
Fortunately, the new owner, Sir Charles Nall-Cain, purchased many of the finest indigenous furnishings with the house, at a sale held on the premises by Messrs. Foster of Pall Mall in 1923. It is in the 1923 sale that the present lot is identifiable (see photograph of catalogue entry) and its exciting discovery solves the mystery of the 'library writing-table which undoubtedy once formed the centrepiece' that 'has disappeared without trace' referred to by Christopher Gilbert in his entry on Brocket Hall in his The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, London, 1978, vol. I, p. 263.
It is possible that this grand library table was supplied by Chippendale for Lord Melbourne's London house. Lord Melbourne embarked on the building of his celebrated Piccadilly mansion, Melbourne House, in 1771, shortly after his marriage to Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Roger Milbanke of Halnaby, Yorkshire. Melbourne House was the most important of Sir William Chambers' town houses, and its furnishing is considered to be Chippendale's premier London commission. According to Thomas Mouat of Garth, who visited it in 1775, it was 'esteemed one of the best finished and furnished houses in London'. Its architect also anounced 'All the world is delighted with it, because the few that give the Ton are pleased'. It was Lord Melbourne's furnishings that once caused a dispute between Chippendale and Chambers, leading the architect to boast himself as a 'Very pretty Connoisseur in furniture'. The table's elegantly scrolled pilasters, recalling antique tripods, harmonises with Chamber's architecture, which likewise quoted from Greek and Roman antiquity. Its eight ivory-numbered drawers have golden brass 'escutcheon' medallions framed in whorled acanthus relating to a rose-ornament pattern that Chambers published as suitable for circular ceilings in his Treatise on the Decorative Part of Civil Architecture, 1759. This practical form of desk would also have been suitable for the Melbourne House library, with its large elliptic bay overlooking the gardens (J. Harris and M. Snodin, Sir William Chambers, London, 1997, figs. 119 and 120). The Melbournes made their Piccadilly house a rallying point for London society, and it was the birthplace of the 2nd Viscount, who served as Prime Minister to William IV and Queen Victoria. In 1793, the furnished house became known as York House, when it became the London residence of King George III's brother, and its name was changed again following its conversion in 1802 to an apartment building known as Albany. In that year, the contents of the Library included a 'A mahogany writing table' which was listed as lot 209 but substituted by a bed, in 'The Catalogue of the Household Furniture ... The Property of His Royal Highness the Duke of York, sold by Mr. Christie on the Premises' at York House on 18 and 19 May 1802.
At the same time that Chippendale was fitting out the London library, he also supplied bookcases for the library at Brocket Hall, Hertfordshire, Lord Melbourne's Hertfordshire seat and it is equally possible that this library table was supplied for that room. The house, set in classic English parkland, was built for Lord Melbourne between 1760 and 1775 by James Paine, the only architect who subscribed to Chippendale's Director, 1754. He devoted twelve plates in his folio work Noblemen and Gentlemen's Houses (1783) to plans, elevations and sections of this sumptuous building which, he stated in the prefatory notes 'the noble owner has spared no expense in furnishing and perfectly compleating'. The 2nd Viscount Melbourne, Queen Victoria's first Prime Minister, spent time at Brocket but during the second half of the 19th Century it was let as a furnished house and the property was sold when Lord Mount Stephen, who held the lease for many years, died in 1922.
Fortunately, the new owner, Sir Charles Nall-Cain, purchased many of the finest indigenous furnishings with the house, at a sale held on the premises by Messrs. Foster of Pall Mall in 1923. It is in the 1923 sale that the present lot is identifiable (see photograph of catalogue entry) and its exciting discovery solves the mystery of the 'library writing-table which undoubtedy once formed the centrepiece' that 'has disappeared without trace' referred to by Christopher Gilbert in his entry on Brocket Hall in his The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, London, 1978, vol. I, p. 263.