1995 Mallett Catalogue

MALLET T English and Continental

Antique Furniture and Ohjets d'Art

141 New Bond Street London W1 and at Bourdon House 2 Davies Street London W1

1995

It is with great pleasure that we present to you in this catalogue a selection of antiques and works of art from our two shops and gallery. Mallett has been offering fine pieces to collectors for 130

years and we take pride in helping clients build their collections or furnish their homes with items of very special quality.

We have also enjoyed a long and happy relationship with museums all over the world, supplying many varied things from furniture to glass and textiles and, more recently, pictures through the Christopher Wood Gallery. We are especially pleased that this year the Metropolitan Museum in New York is re-opening its English galleries and one of the exhibitions which we shall be holding at Mallett during 1995, entitled Museum Treasures, will be in celebration of this event.

I hope you will enjoy looking at this representative selection of our treasures and that we shall have the pleasure of seeing you in London during the year.

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M A L L E T T in Bond Street

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IRISH FURNITURE OF THE 18TH CENTURY

In 1994, Mallett held an exhibition of English and Irish Furniture ami Irish glass in one of the beautiful rooms at Newman House on St. Stephen's Green in Dublin, by invitation of University College Dublin and on the instigation of the Irish Georgian Society. Newman House dates from the 1730s and has recently been the subject of a magnificent restoration project. Excellent conservation work has been done to the building, especially to the outstanding plaster work by the Francini brothers.

There will be a further Irish exhibition at Mallett in June 1995.

It is not always sufficiently understood by people living overseas how prosperous Ireland was in the eighteenth and earlier part of the nineteenth centuries. From about 1740 especially there was a great boom of country

house building following political dominance by the English. Despite the obvious exploitation of the land wealth, a general wave of development throughout the eighteenth century brought about an unprecedented surge of building. Houses both great and middle-sized were built throughout the country. Most, and the greatest, were erected within a proximity to Dublin ('within the pale') or in other parts of the country where the land was particularly good and fertile. These houses had to be furnished and though inevitably much of the contents were imported from London or existing family residences in England, a considerable part must have been supplied by Irish journeymen, craftsmen and organised businesses in Dublin and other centres.

Huguenots who had arrived in Ireland in considerable numbers brought their particular influence to Dublin workshops and their distinctive forms, often characterised by masks and strapwork patterns, when further blended with current early Georgian features, as seen on English furniture, led to the idiosyncratic elements that became recognisable features of Irish carved furniture. Why these are so different to English furniture styles lies merely in the chance of remote development. These aspects are marked by such motifs as the prominent and well carved lion masks on tables, semi-grotesque human faces, certain scroll leaf decoration and overall background patterns with diaper lines, floral stems and sand-like pouncing.

In a distinguished group of Irish pieces currently at Mallett's is a magnificent oval wine cooler. With its bold carving in rich, dark mahogany, it exemplifies. On a relatively small scale, the spirit of Irish furniture. The whole body is formed of large gadroon mouldings. The frieze bears the hallmark of floral motifs carved on a punched ground and supports are in the form of overscale, naturalistic hairy paw feet, a feature so often associated with Irish design. It is a piece made for a purpose but which also displays prosperity in an exuberant and opulent fashion.

A very fine giltwood mirror ascribed to Francis and John Booker, of architectural proportions, combines an unusually rich collection of elements and decoration more commonly seen on buildings than in furniture making. While this is a general feature of the furniture designs of William Kent, this piece carries the language of architecture and ornament to an unusually rich and decorative extreme. The elemental parts, applied bas relief carving and carving of the overall applied gesso, all contribute to unusual richness, yet the overall conception is miraculously not overcrowded. The general feeling of the whole piece is distinctly not English. Happily, the mirror, which was presumably conceived as a pier glass to hang over a side table, retains its original gilding and an antique mercury silvered plate which is in good condition. The mirror is attributed to the firm of the Booker family who are

18th Century Irish Furniture

believed to have come from Nottinghamshire in England but moved to Ireland in the late seventeenth century. At Malahide Castle, County Dublin, there is another looking glass of wider proportions attributed to Francis and John Booker. More strictly classical and with a double broken pediment of straight triangular form, rather than arched, this also has free standing columns at either side with wall space revealed between these and the mirror plate. In both instances it is interesting to note that the peculiar feature of console brackets as supports beneath the corinthian columns, an apparently Irish idiosyncrasy, is also to be seen on the Venetian window which illuminates the staircase at Newman House in Dublin.

William Moore is perhaps the best known Dublin cabinet maker and a number of similar pieces of furniture are linked with his name including a corner cupboard of circa 1785 illustrated in the Knight of Glin's small book Irish Furniture (part of the Irish Heritage Series). Illustrated here is an unusually long semi-elliptical side table of the same date, with tapering legs and decorated overall with fine marquetry in a remarkable state of preservation. Features on this table that confirm its attribution to Moore include delicately drawn swags of flowers, stylised anthemia on the apron frieze and the choice of veneers, such as harewood.

A very beautiful set of six side chairs, which could be loosely described as in the Chippendale tradition having carved splat backs and carved cabriole legs, are certain to be of Irish origin. These chairs are unusual in being of walnut, a wood much prized until the lifting of restrictions on the importation of Cuban mahogany led to this latter timber becoming more fashionable. Almost as dark and rich in colour, the walnut does, however, after closer inspection, have a different grain and its own qualities. These chairs have great elegance and idiosyncrasies which preclude them from being English. A number of features in the carved form and decoration confirm surmise that they are Irish made and this is further confirmed by the method of construction under the seat rails. There is a crisp yet linear style of carving on the backs of the chairs, a faceted feature on the legs and a carved leaf ruff above a ball foot, each of which are recognisable aspects of Irish seat furniture.

Following the disastrous exodus of fine furniture from Ireland over a number of years, it is good that some pieces are now being returned to the great houses that are now newly cherished. It is also to be hoped that other good quality furniture that originated in Irish workshops will be increasingly identified, as this adds so much interest to the background of each piece and to furniture history studies generally.

A> L.\ E X T R E M E L Y RARE MID 1 8 T H C E N T U R Y mahogany wine cooler, the oval body with deep gadrooned decoration supported by a heavily carved stand on four legs, the knees with scrolled acanthus carving, the frieze also decorated in the floral manner, on massive hairy paw feet. Irish, circa 1750

Height: 21in (53cm) Width: 26in (66cm) Depth: 19in (48cm)

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Engraving from The Gentleman and Builders'Companion and a closeh/ related mirror In/ Booker, reproduced by kind permission of the Victoria and Albert Museum.

C A R V E D G I L T W O O D M I R R O R O F A R C H I T E C T U R A L design and grand proportions, attributed to Francis and John Booker, with fohate carved, broken swan's neck pediment and central cartouche above a dentil cornice and a frieze carved with a basket of flowers, wheatears, swags and bows within egg and dart borders; the mirror plate framed by fluted applied columns with Corinthian capitals, with eagle's heads, leaf scrolls and tassels at the sides and acanthus scrolls at the base, flanking a shaped apron carved with egg and dart and scrolling foliage. Irish, circa 1755

Height: 75in (190cm) Width: 43in (109cm)

Literature: World Mirrors, Graham Child, 1990, figs 164 and 164a; English Looking Glasses, Geoffrey Wills, 1965, figs 52 and 53; Queen Anne and Georgian Lookit^g Glasses, F. Lewis Hinkley, 1987, pi 199; 'A Family of Looking Glass Merchants', the Knight of Glin, Country Life, 28 January 1971, pp 195-199; Irish Furniture, The Irish Heritage Series, the Knight ofGlin, 1978, fig 31.

Francis and John Booker inherited their father's business on his death in 1705. Their father was registered as a 'looking glass merchant' in 1711 and as 'glass grinder of Essex Bridge' in 1728. The two brothers retained their father's premises and were listed as 'glass grinders' and 'sellers' in Wilsons Dublin Directory until 1772. Francis died in 1773 and John continued the family business as 'Looking Glass Seller of Essex Bridge' until 1786 when he moved premises, dying himself only three years later. The area of Essex Bridge, approximating to today's Temple Bar in Dublin, was a centre for mirror merchants in the eighteenth century.

The probable source for this particular mirror design is Fhe Gentleman or Builders Companion, which was published in 1739 by the architect William Jones in London. It was sold in Dublin that same year by Robert Owen of Skinners Row. The book has nine different sections but has little variety and designs for 'pier glass or tabernacle frames' employ the same architectural elements as the designs for 'doors, gateways ... and chimney pieces'. The engraving illustrated is very similar to a design for a fireplace in plate 26 and repeats the columns flanking a doorway in plate 15.

Only two fragments of Bookers' trade cards remain. One was found on a small japanned toilet mirror in Dublin, while the second appeared on the back of a pediment mirror framed by Corinthian columns in London during the late 1960s. There is an important group of a dozen mirrors of similar design in this architectural style that were originally associated with the work of William Kent. However, within the architectural frames there is a wealth of elaborate rococo and neo-classical detail. Carved anthemia surround the frame of one such mirror which was sold from Belvedere, County Westmeath, and scrolling strapwork and pendant floral festoons are widely used as decorative features. In our mirror, the elaborate frieze composed of additional natural motifs, with central basket of flowers flanked by corn husks and ribbons, reflects the taste prevailing during the later 1750s and 1760s. It therefore seems probable that this group of mirrors was produced after 1750 by the sons, Francis and John Booker, after they took over the business from their father, employing an historical architectural form, but enriching it with the newest fashionable details.

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A . V E R Y F I N E M A R Q U E T R Y S E M I - E L L I P T I C A L SIDE t a b l e attributed to Wil l iam M o o r e of Dubl in , the h a r e w o o d top inlaid with central fan and vine motif and further ring of scroll ing leaves and ribbon; the border of anthemia and florettes, cross-banding and stringing, the sa t inwood frieze inlaid with swags of husks, b o w s and anthemia , s tanding on square tapering legs with further inlay, ending in collar and square foot, the w h o l e being of exceptional colour and condition. Irish, circa 1775

Height : 34in (86cm) Width : 64in (163cm) Depth: l l V d n (58cm)

William Moore came to Dublin from England in 1782. He is recorded at addresses first in Abbey Street and then in Capel Street until 1815. In London he had worked for the cabinet makers Ince and Mayhew who were among the first of the leading firms to adopt the neo-classical style. He brought with him this new taste with which his work has always been associated. In May 1782 he advertised in the Dublin Evening Post:

'William Moore most respectfully acknowledges the encouragement he has received, begs leave to inform those who may want inlaid work, that by his close attention to business and instructions to his men, he has brought the manufacture to such perfection, to be able to sell for almost one half his original prices; as the greatest demand is for Pier-Tables, he has just finished in the newest taste a great variety of patterns, sizes and prices, from three guineas to twenty ... and hopes from his long experience at Messrs. Mayhew and Ince, London, his remarkable fine coloured woods, and elegant finished work, to meet the approbation of all who shall please to honour him with their commands.'

A demi-lune harewood commode with neo-classical marquetry at Welbeck Abbey, Nottinghamshire, was made by Moore for the 3rd Duke of Portland. A commode with many similarities is in the Victoria and Albert Museum and another was formerly at Lismore Castle, County Waterford, both firmly attributed to Moore. This table compares closely with these three known pieces both in construction, in the cutting and laying of the veneers, and in the content of the marquetry designs.

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18th Centuri/ Irish Furniture

A : . SET OF SIX SINGLE C H A I R S IN W A L N U T WITH pierced splat backs in the Chippendale style, carved with leaf and scroll motifs, on boldly curved cabriole front legs carved with acanthus and scrolls, reeded below the knees and ending in rare foliate carved pad feet. Irish, circa 1755

Height: SbVzin (93cm) Width: 23in (58cm) Depth of seat: 19in (48cm)

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A VERY FINE LATE 1 8 T H C E N T U R Y BOSSI fireplace in whi te statuary marble , inlaid on the frieze with urns and swags , wreaths and rosettes and with scagliola fluting, the jambs inlaid with similar fluting be tween borders of S ienna marble . Irish, circa 1785

Height overall : 58'/2in (149cm) Width overall : 68'/iin (174cm) Height of opening: 48in (122cm) Width of opening: 46in (117cm)

In the fireplace opening is an engraved brass and steel register grate s igned Alsop of Dublin. Irish, circa 1780

The name Bossi is derived from an Italian craftsman, Pietro Bossi, who is thought to have worked in Dublin between 1785 and 1798. His name has been given to marble inlaid with coloured compositions in the neo-classical manner, particularly fireplaces and table tops.

This fireplace displays a number of familiar motifs associated with Bossi and, in this instance, these colourful devices are combined with another feature which appears on fireplaces in Ireland, the use of trompe I'oeil fluting. This would normally be achieved by inlaying pieces of solid marble but Bossi used his skills of simulation to produce the same effect in scagliola.

His particular and colourful technique he kept a secret all his life, even from his own son, and it is reputed that he died with these words on his lips: There is only one God and one Bossi.'

Examples of Bossi fireplaces in Ireland may be seen in the Bishop's Room in Newman House in Dublin, in the Boudoir at Russborough, County Wicklow, and in the Ballroom at Aras an Uachtarain, the residence of the President of the Irish Republic at Phoenix Park, Dublin, formerly the Viceregal Lodge.

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Walnut bureau bookcase and stool of the Queen Anne period

1

EARLY 18TH CENTURY ENGLISH FURNITURE AND TEXTILES

LN E A R L Y 1 8 T H C E N T U R Y Q U E E N A N N E W A L N U T wing chair on cabriole front legs carved at the knees with scrolls and pendant bellflowers; the chamfered back legs of rare ogee shape; the tall back, wings, arm rests and seat covered in needlework of the period with a design of flowers on a yellow ground worked in gros point and petit point. English, circa 1710 (with restorations)

Height: 47in (119cm) Width: 34in ( 8 7 c m ) Depth of seat: 19in (48cm)

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Early 18th Century English Furniture

A-L.\ EXCEPTIONAL SMALL WALNUT CHEST OF drawers , the top and sides veneered in burr walnut of the richest mark ings and fine colour, the top with rare double feather-banded borders and moulded edges, with brushing sl ide above two small and three long drawers , all with original locks and brass handles , raised on bracket feet. English, circa 1710

Height: 30'/^in (77cm) Width: 29in (74cm) Depth: 18'/:in (47cm)

This chest of drawers exemplifies the style of furniture that has become synonymous with the Queen Anne period. It was not a piece designed to make a grand statement but a domestic item suited to the new type of interior of that time. No longer did every fine new house have to boast cavernous halls and the highest ceilings; smaller houses were being built with smaller rooms for comfort and warmth but still conforming to fine, classical proportions.

Small in scale, simple in concept and practical for everyday use, this chest of drawers nonetheless gives us an example of early eighteenth-century cabinet making of the highest order, using the best materials. The panelled effect of the top created by double lines of feather-banded inlay, with the richness of the burr walnut veneers in between, is exceptional. It remains in remarkable original condition with the genuine character and patination that can only develop over nearly three centuries.

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A M A G N I F I C E N T V E R R E EGLOMISE PIER GLASS with arched top, the f rame elaborately decorated in gold with foliate s t rapwork and arabesques in the m a n n e r of Jean Berain on a scarlet ground, within narrow carved gi l twood mouldings ; with Vauxhal l bevel led divided mirror plates, the upper plate bear ing the coat of arms of Sir Gregory Page Bt of Greenwich . English, circa 1710

Height; 90'/2in (230cm) Width: 39in ( 9 9 c m )

Sir Gregory Page (1688-1720) was a director and later chairman of the East India Company. He was also MP for the constituency of New Shoreham from 1708 until 1720. He was created a baronet by George I in 1714 but the baronetcy expired in 1775 on the death of his son, the 2nd baronet, who had lived at Wricklemarsh in Kent. A number of mirrors were included in the sale of the contents of Wricklemarsh held by Christie's in 1783. These were not, however, adequately described for this particular one to be identified. A 1775 inventory of Wricklemarsh lists a set of six early eighteenth-century lacquer and japanned hall chairs made for Sir Gregory, also bearing his coat of arms. These were sold in the 1783 sale and, much more recently, two of them were sold again at Christie's in November 1990.

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A. LN IMPORTANT EARLY 1 8 T H CENTURY SOHO tapestry woven in silk and wool, depicting oriental figures seated at tables under a canopy and beside pavilions in a garden scene with birds and flowering bushes; in the foreground a warrior on a prancing horse confronts a snarling wild cat. English, circa 1720

8ft 6in X 7ft 9in (259 x 236cm)

Provenance: Formerly in the collection of the Carlyon Family at Tregrehan, near St. Austell in Cornwall.

Literature: H.C. Mariller, English Tapestries of the Eighteenth Century, London 1930; Simon Harcourt-Smith, Burlington Magazine, February 1936; Barty Phillips, Tapestry, London 1994, illustrated pp 91 and 95

The name 'Soho' tapestry is the generic term given to English tapestries made in London in the early eighteenth century, though not all were made strictly within the Soho district itself. There is a distinct group of Chinoiserie tapestries whose designs emulate the fashionable oriental lacquer and textiles imported during the early eighteenthth century.

Only two weavers have signed tapestries of this style. John Vanderbank was Chief Arras Worker for the Great Wardrobe and worked in Queen Street, Covent Garden. His signed work is more naturalistic than the present panel which has striking similarities to a tapestry from a group in the collection of Lord Aberconway, signed M. Mazarin.

The Aberconway tapestry was sold by Mr Arthur Grenfell in 1912, and originally came from Russia where there is a record stating that it formed part of the collection sold from Houghton Hall to Catherine the Great. Other panels with this same scrolling acanthus border are at The Vyne, Hampshire, and also one was sold from Adlington Hall, Cheshire. Another set, of four, was commissioned by Elihu Yale after whom Yale University is named, and these were acquired by the University in 1924. Two further examples are in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

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Detail from the Soho tapestry

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STH CENTURY SOHO :ing oriental figures side pavilions in a garden in the foreground a I snarling wild cat.

Carlyon Family at

the Eighteenth Century, gton Magazine, February llustrated pp 91 and 95

I given to English tapestries ury, though not all were There is a distinct group of :e the fashionable oriental ly eighteenthth century. !S of this style. John Great Wardrobe and

; signed work is more > striking similarities to -ord Aberconway, signed

/IT Arthur Grenfell in 1912, ? is a record stating that it ;hton Hall to Catherine the acanthus border are at The

Adlington Hall, oned by Elihu Yale after /ere acquired by the ! in the Victoria and Albert

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STALKER AND PARKER AND THE ART OF JAPANNING

Illustrations ami extracts from the text of Stalker and Parker's Treatise of Japanning and Varnishing reproducea by kind permission of Alec Tiranti Ltd, who are planning a neic edition of the book.

TREATISE O F

JAPANING V A R N I S H I N G '

Being a compleu Difcovcry of thofe Atri. W I T H

The bdt my of tmlOng .11 fom of V A R N I S H fcr J A R A H Wonn, P K I N T I L Or PlcTUKKI.

The Method of CUtLDING. BURNISHING, ind LACKBRING.

widi the Art of GuiUiag, Sepmting, and Refini M tTALIt and of Painting M E Z Z O - T I H T O • P I I M T S .

AUb lUk. b Coantufeiting T O R T O I S E . S H E L L , and M A K I L E , and fee

Staining or Dying W O O D , I V O R Y , and H O R H

Togetbnwidi AImtc an Hundred diftinQ Fattenulor JAPAK-woii, in

Ioiiut«»oril» INDlJNS,hiTMi,5imil,Trmm,OHmli, tm.ti,.

Orinflj Elgr/wi « 14 Urgt Coffer.PiaeH.

By JOHK STJLK^I^,'^ OEO^OE PJRKt^

Ptiot«dfor,aii<IRI>UBYUKAIIILI<»^^°5£' « i I k G o I * " W I in Sc. 7 « u V Maikct, : oc by ChrR u Mc. JUijfi IVitJ' Houft ore •pull

A Ithough little is known about Mr John Stalker and / \ Mr George Parker, their one published work,

J , brought back to light in 1960 by Messrs Alec Tiranti, places them firmly in the annals of one important area of the decorative arts in England. Their Treatise of fapaning and Varnishing - Being a compleat Discovery of those Arts, published in Oxford in 1688, is a detailed work on the European interpretation of oriental decoration on furniture and objects, as well as the techniques of gilding and other decorative finishes such as imitation tortoiseshell and marbling. In language which transports us back to the days of Post-Restoration England, it is written in terms of sumptuous verbosity, liberally illustrated with picturesque, classical references and brimming with self-assurance. It nonetheless covers every possible aspect of its subject in such a way as to leave the student in no doubt as to how to proceed in the correct manner. Albeit pedantic, it is also witty and, to us today, charming in its antiquation. Not merely a work of reference, it is also a literary delight.

Including twenty-four copper plate engravings of chinoiserie designs, it was written not just for professionals but particularly to advise and encourage amateurs. In the seventeenth century, many a lady of refinement would have devoted her leisure hours to pastimes such as needlework and

painting, hence perhaps John Stalker's humble dedication of his volume to the Countess of Derby. It was a perfect time to promote the exciting new ideas and styles arriving from the east that were becoming so fashionable then.

From the days of the early explorers, the exotic orient and its culture held a fascinating curiosity for Europeans. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, with the expanding trade between the hemispheres, particularly via the shipping routes of the great maritime powers of England, Holland and Portugal, eagerness grew to acquire Chinese porcelain and lacquer. At that time, the most desirable lacquer was considered to be that of Japan, hence the term 'japanning'. However, in the seventeeth century Japan was almost completely banned from trading with the west. This, together with the expense and time involved in bringing back original pieces from so far away and the hunger of fashion conscious furnishers here, led to the emergence of imaginative craftsmen and artists who strove to imitate the Chinese or Japanese designs. Stalker and Parker must have seized upon this opportunity.

Before long, all types of furniture were being lavishly decorated with chinoiserie. There were caskets and mirrors, as well as chairs, chests and tables, and cabinets, the quintessence of which are the magnificent bureau bookcases of the first quarter of the eighteenth century. On these every facet was richly embellished with gold on a coloured ground, principally black, red or green and occasionally blue or white.

Stalker is recorded as a maker of japanned furniture working 'at the Golden Ball in St. James's Market', but it is thought that Parker was more of an academic. His address is given as 'at Mr. Richard Woods House over against the Theater in Oxford'. Together they describe in great detail the skills of japanning, particularly advising the 'reader or practitioner' to beware of poor quality and the work of 'varnish-dawbers'. In the preface, the author launches into an eloquent appreciation of the virtues of painting:

... Tis an unchangeable and universal language. Painting can decipher those mystical characters of our Faces, which carry in them the Motto's of our Souls, whereby our very Natures are made legible ... that Magick Art, more powerful than Medaea's charms, not only renews old age, but happily prevents grey hairs and wrinkles; and sometimes too, like Orpheus for Euridice, forces the shades to a surrender, and pleads exemption from the Grave.

He continues, however, towards his real purpose and his enthusiasm for his subject leads him to ever more emotive tones:

Well then, as Painting has made an honourable provision for our Bodies, so Japanning has taught us a method, no way inferior to it, for the splendor and preservation of our Furniture and Houses ... Not that tis only strong and durable, but delightful and ornamental beyond expression: What can be more surprising, then to have our Chambers overlaid with Varnish more glossy and reflecting than polisht Marble? No amorous Nymph need entertain a Dialogue with her Glass, or Narcissus retire to a Fountain,

30


•

A drawer hont from a Queen Anne japanned Kneehole desk illustrated on the cover and p 33

to survey his charming countenance, when the whole house is one entire Speculum. To this we subjoin the Golden Draught, with which Japan is so exquisitely adorned, than which nothing can be more beautiful, more rich or Majestick

Following these impassioned paragraphs. Stalker and Parker embark upon the practical and myriad instructions of their art, firstly advising the reader to use only the best materials, and give tips on how to check them:

... that your Spirits be very strong, your Gums and Metals of the best . . . The best way to prove your Spirits, is to take some in a spoon, and put a little Gun-powder in it, and then set the Spirit on fire with a little paper or candle, as you do Brandy, and if it burn so long till it fire the Gun-powder before it go out, it is fit for use, and will dissolve your Gums.

Then they proceed to the making of the different varnishes, processes often lasting days, preparing and applying the different 'Japans', the preparation of woods, creating speckled decorations and imitating the Chinese and Japanese raised lacquer. There is also advice on how to cope with problems:

Lay all your colours and Blacks exquisitely even and smooth; and where ever mole-hills and knobs, asperities and roughness in colours or varnish offer to appear, with your Rush sweep them off, and tell them their room is more acceptable to you than their company. If this ill usage will not terrifie them, or make them avoid your work, give them no better entertainment than you did before, but maintain your former severity, and with your Rush whip them off, as often as they molest you.

Even some of the basic ingredients have names that ring of romantic mythology: 'Dragons Blood' was one of the important components of the majestic 'Red-Japan', the most highly desired of all the colours that could be produced. The authors claim that 'Vermilion deservedly claims the chief place'.

Your work being ready and warm, produce your Vermilion well mixt with the varnish, and salute it four times with it; then allow it to dry, and if your Reds be full, and in a good body to your liking, rush it very smoothly: so done, wash it eight times with the ordinary Seed-Lacc-varnish, and grant it a repose for twelve hours; then rush it again, though slightly, to make it look smooth. And lastly, for rf fine outward covering bestow eight or ten washes of your best Seed-Lacc-varnish upon it: and having laid it by for five or six days bring forth to polish, and clear it up with Oyl and Lamblack.

Although the aim of Stalker and Parker was to reproduce faithfully the original designs, they do admit to a little artistic licence:

In the Cutts and Patterns at the end of this book, we have exactly imitated their Buildings, Towers and Steeples, Figures, Rocks, and the like, according to the Patterns which the best work-men amongst them have afforded us on their

Cabinets, Screens, Boxes etc. Perhaps we have helpt them a little in their proportions, where they were lame or defective, and made them more pleasant yet altogether as Antick.

Their publication of 1688 only illustrates a small number of the great variety of patterns that inspired them and clearly other talented craftsmen took the designs further and added their own individual characteristics. However, Stalker and Parker's oeuvre was undoubtedly a great influence in the interpretation of eastern art into the furnishings of English and European homes and the tradition for japanning, not only on wood but also on metal work, has existed more or less ever since.

On the art of Japanning the 'Treatise' concludes:

If I maybe allowed to bestow a hearty Wish, it must be for its Sucess, that it may flourish and be admired; that from these lines, as the Serpents teeth which Cadmus sowed, may spring experienced Artists, that will invest it with splendour and reputation; yet with this difference from the parallel, that they may mutually conspire to estabhsh and eternize it.

31


Below right: The Blue Room at Trent Park, where the red lacquer kneehole desk can be seen against the far wall, reproduced by kind permission of the National Magazine Company.

A LN EXTREMELY RARE QUEEN ANNE RED LACQUER KNEEHOLE desk in the form of a bachelor ' s chest, having a fold-over top which w h e n o p e n e d rests on gate-leg supports ; the front of the desk has cupboard doors on either side which open to reveal an arrangement of small drawers which flank three longer drawers in the recess; the top lifts to give a leather lined writ ing surface, part of which opens on three internal compartments ; at the front of the writ ing flap is a racheted b o o k rest; with brass carrying handles at the sides; the bun feet of later date. T h e entire desk is richly decorated with gold japanning on a vermil ion ground, the scenes reflecting the patterns of Stalker and Parker 's Treatise of Japanning and Varnishing. English, circa 1710

Height : 28y4in (73cm) Width : SYVdn (96cm) Depth: 13VAn (34cm)

Provenance: Formerly in the collection of Sir Philip Sassoon Bt at Trent Park, Hertfordshire, and latterly in the collection of the Marquess of Cholmondeley at Houghton Hall, Norfolk.

Exhibited: London, Lansdowne House, Wl , Loan Exhibition of English Decorative Art at Lansdowne House, 17-28 February 1929, no 322. London, 25 Park Lane, Wl , T h e Age of Walnut', 1932, fig 44.

Literature: C. Hussey, 'Japanned Furniture at Trent Park', Country Life, 18 October 1930, p 500, fig 9; C. Hussey, 'Trent Park, Hertfordshire II, Country Life, 17 January 1931, p 70, fig 8; 'Trent Park', The Antique Collector, January 1939, p 348; Dr G. Doree, Trent Park: A Short History to 1939,1974.

Trent Park, near Barnet in Hertfordshire, originally an eighteenth-century house set within landscaped parkland was acquired in 1908 by Sir Edward Sassoon, head of a massive trading empire founded by his father, and his wife Aline de Rothschild, of the great banking family. Their son, Philip, inherited not only a vast fortune, but also treasures from the collection of his Rothschild grandparents and he developed a lifelong passion for objects of beauty. At the age of twenty-three he entered Parliament, the beginning of a lifetime in politics, during which he also became trustee of the National Gallery, Tate Gallery and the Wallace Collection.

Philip Sassoon's opulent taste emerged in the interiors and contents of his homes at Port Lympne, in Kent and 25 Park Lane in London. He also entertained lavishly and was renowned for his hospitality in high society and royal circles. Through his elevation in Government, he held regular political lunches at Park Lane, also the venue for annual art exhibitions during the last ten years of his life.

In the 1920s, he launched into a complete rebuilding of his third home at Trent Park. In contrast to 25 Park Lane, which was furnished in the French manner, the new Trent Park was filled with lacquer and japanned pieces. The Blue Room, or South Drawing Room, had walls painted eau-de-nil within which stood pieces exclusively of red lacquer, including this rare kneehole desk. The Antique Collector of January 1939, in an article on Trent Park, claimed 'the

32

japanned furniture ranks indeed as probably the most important array of its kind in private possession.'

Sir Philip Sassoon Bt MP, connoisseur and collector, never married and died in 1939 at the age of fifty. His sister, Sybil, to whom he had always been very close, had been married in 1913 to the Earl of Rocksavage, later 5th Marquess of Cholmondeley. It is by this path that many of the masterpieces from the Sassoon collection came to Houghton Hall.

Houghton was the creation of Sir Robert Walpole, the famous eighteenth-century politician and England's first true Prime Minister. He was also a cultured man, with a great love of art and architecture. Through the marriage of his daughter to the 3rd Earl of Cholmondeley, his grandson became the 1st Marquess. Built between 1722 and 1735, Houghton is one of the greatest achievements of Georgian baroque architecture. William Kent was commissioned to decorate the interiors and also design much of the original furniture. Under Kent, artists such as the sculptor Rysbrack and the stuccoist Artari added their brilliance to the rooms, bringing together some of the greatest talents available at that time. These were the historic interiors that were yet further enriched by the addition of the works of art from Philip Sassoon.

See also p 34

George III and Regency Periods

A PAIR O F G E O R G E III S A T I N W O O D D I S P L A Y cabinets of tall, elegant proportions and rare design having concave fronts, the upper section with glazed doors and sides divided by arched astragals, the lower section with double doors, lined with green pleated silk behind brass diamond grilles. English, circa 1800

Height: 8ft V'Ain (263cm) Width: 4ft Bin (142cm) Depth: 1ft S^-in (40cm)

The dining room at Buxted Park, reproduced by kind permission of Country Life.

Provenance: Formerly in the collection of Mr Basil and the Hon Mrs lonides at Buxted Park, East Sussex. Buxted Park, built in about 1720, was acquired by Mr and Mrs lonides in 1931 and housed their fine collection of eighteenth-century pictures, furniture and objets d'art. These cabinets stood in the dining room, where they were filled with a magnificent array of Chinese export porcelain. Much of this collection of porcelain is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

37

A. I.N I M P O R T A N T PAIR OF C H I P P E N D A L E P E R I O D carved mahogany Gainsborough armchairs with tall rectangular padded backs, scroll and leaf carved arm supports, on cabriole legs, also foliate carved, with scrolled feet and cabochon motifs on the knees at the front; the upholstered backs and seats covered in rose coloured damask, woven in an 18th century pattern. English, circa 1760

Height: 40in (102cm) Width: 30'/2in (77cm) Depth of seat: 21 in (53cm)

3S

A . SET OF EIGHT H E P P L E W H I T E PERIOD M A H O G A N Y shield back dining chairs comprising two armchairs and six single chairs, the arched top rails carved with bellflower motifs and with scroll ends, the central splats of pierced ribbon design with central satinwood patera, raised on moulded and tapering legs joined by stretchers. English, circa 1780

Height: 37in (94cm) Width of armchairs: 23in (58cm) Width of single chairs: 20'/:in (52cm) Depth of seat: 19in (48cm)

Four additional modern single chairs, exact copies of the originals, have been made to provide a set of tuvliv chairs together.

39


A H E P P L E W H I T E R E C T A N G U L A R P E M B R O K E T A B L E of exceptional quality, in harewood with panels of burr y e w wood and borders of inlaid roundels and ebony and b o x w o o d stringing, with unusual small crescent motifs at the corners, the single drawer in the frieze containing a leather lined writ ing slide, on square tapering legs ending in brass castors. English, circa 1790

Height: ISVAn (73cm) Width: 32in (81cm) Depth: 26in (66cm)

This table derives from the designs of George Hepplewhite, whose name has become synonymous with an important period of Georgian furniture design. Few facts, however, are known about his life other than that he was at first apprenticed to Gillow in Lancaster and later founded his own business in London, at Redcross Street, Cripplegate. After his death in 1786, the firm was managed by his wife Alice. Two years later the first edition of the Cabinet MaJ<er and Upholsterer's Guide was published, containing some three hundred designs from drawings by 'A. Hepplewhite & Co. Cabinet Makers'. It was the most ambitious work of its kind for many years. However, it sought not to change dramatically the whole face of English furniture making but rather to reflect and enhance the prevailing tastes and styles of the time. In the preface to the definitive 1794 edition of the Guide, the stated aim is 'to unite elegance and utility, and blend the useful with the agreeable'. The result is a whole series of practical yet elegant forms, showing the neo-classical influence of that period, embellished with appropriate patterns for detailed carving or for graceful marquetry or painted decoration.

Design for n Pembroke table from Heppleu'hite's Cabinet Maker and Upholsterer's Guide.

47


A . M A G N I F I C E N T M A H O G A N Y A N D M A R Q U E T R Y four-poster bed of grand proportions, the full length of the turned front columns inlaid in ebony and boxwood in a striped design of laurel motifs with alternate bands of beading, on plinth bases inlaid with oval medallions with foliate sprays, the arched and moulded tester painted with palmettes and anthemia in shades of brown and ochre with red detail. English, circa 1780

The bed has been fitted with a new boxspring and mattress and hung in coral and apricot silks with handmade silk fringes. The tester reconstructed according to the remaining elements and decorated in a period pattern.

Height: 10ft (305cm) Length: 7ft 7in (231cm) Width: 6ft V'AAn (202cm)

The minutely executed inlaid patterns of the bed-post columns and plinths imitate the decoration painted on the magnificent State Bed designed by Robert Adam in 1775 for Mr Robert Child's great Osterley Park. Adam's original drawing is preserved in Vol xvii of the Adam Series in the collection of Sir John Soane's Museum, London.

43

George III and Rcgciici/ Periods

A V E R Y FINE R E G E N C Y P E R I O D R O S E W O O D W R I T I N G table with brass mounts in the manner of John McLean, with pierced gallery, lion's head handles and lyre shaped end supports, raised on splayed legs joined by a turned stretcher, the whole table enriched on all sides with brass mouldings and inlay and raised on brass castors; the top lined with gilt tooled red leather. English, circa 1810

Height: 30in (71cm) Length: 43'/:in (110cm)

The furniture of John McLean was clearly influenced by the designs of the late Louis XVI and Empire periods in France, this piece being an example of his adaption of those styles to an English writing table. A trade card in the British Museum, issued from his workshops in Upper Marylebone Street, London, indicates that he specialised in 'Elegant Parisian Furniture'. A cabinet in the Empire style, bearing his label, is in the Victoria and Albert Museum. McLean much favoured the use of gilded brass detail and the fluted brass inlay is a particular hallmark of this famous cabinet maker.

45

46

• 1 - • • f -

George III and Regeiici/ Periods

A . LN I M P O R T A N T R E G E N C Y P E R I O D P E D E S T A L T A B L E

in rosewood with brass inlay in the manner of George Bullock, the rectangular top inset with 120 different specimens of Italian marble and banded by ebony inlaid with brass in a scrolling foliate pattern, the frieze and base also inlaid with brass and further enriched with brass mouldings, raised on a reeded stem with scroll carved giltwood base, on concave shaped platform with boldly carved giltwood paw feet.

In the frieze a drawer opens with a press button to reveal a panel inscribed 'CATALOGO Delia qui annessa Serie di Pietre Silicie e Calcarie, in No 120.' English, circa 1820

Height: 30in (76cm) Width: 20in (51cm) Depth: IVVAn (44cm)

There was considerable revival in specialised brass inlay work in the early nineteenth century. This fashion for rich and intricate work was promoted by the Prince Regent and by 1815 at least two 'manufacturers' specialising in buhl work were established in London, those of Thomas Parker and Louis le Gaigneur. The scrolling brass work framing the marble panel on this table, combined with the sculptural gilt carving of the base, is stylistically more similar to the work of Parker and probably dates from between 1815 and 1820.

47

THE SUN KING BY GIRARDON

A . R E N O W N E D BRONZE E Q U E S T R I A N STATUE OF Louis XIV after Francois Girardon, the King astride a stallion with flowing mane and tail, the near hind hoof upon a sword and a Roman shield cast with the head of Medusa; the plinth inscribed 'Girardon'; raised on an ebony veneered pedestal inlaid with borders of brass in contre-partie with scrolls and foliage and mounted with gilt bronze mouldings and satyr's masks, a cupboard door opening on one side centred by the figure of Time within an elaborate cartouche of scrolling leaves. French, 19th century

Overall height: 85in (216cm) Length of horse from head to tail: 36in (91cm) Pedestal: 29'/4in x 17Vdn (74 x 44cm)

Provenance: Formerly in the collection of Sir Philip Sassoon Bt at 25 Park Lane, London, and latterly in the collection of the Marquess of Cholmondeley at Houghton Hall, Norfolk. (For a brief history of Sir Philip Sassoon and Houghton Hall, see p 32.)

Drawing of the installation of the original statue in the Place Louis-le- M Grand, reproduced by kind permission of * the Musee dii Louvre.

48

Details from Girardon's bronze equestrian statue of Louis XIV

Frangois Girardon (1628-1715) was born in Troyes, son of a metal founder, and was apprenticed to the cabinet maker and sculptor Bandesson. He became the protege of Chancellor Seguier who sent him on his first trip to Rome in 1648.

In 1651 he returned to Paris and soon became a 'Sculpteur du Roi'. He was elected to the Academy in 1657 in the same year as he got married. In 1659 he became the Professor of Sculpture, being elected Rector of the Academy in 1674.

During these early years in Paris he worked closely with the artist Le Brun, completing elaborate ceiling decoration for the chateau at Vaux-le-Vicomte and also at Fontainebleau, as well as the King's Apartment at the Tuileries. After his second journey to Italy in 1667 he returned to supervise the decoration of the King's ships and submitted several models for fountains and statuary at Versailles.

However, it was from 1684 until the turn of the century that Girardon was most influential, acting as superintendent of sculpture for Louis XIV. It was during this period, when Girardon was at the height of his powers, that he designed this equestrian sculpture.

The original for this statue of Louis XIV stood in the centre of the 'Place Louis-le-Grand' (or Place Vendome). This monumental work was commissioned in 1686 and finally cast in bronze in one piece by Keller, before being unveiled in 1699. It is represented in a number of contemporary drawings and paintings, one of which is illustrated here. It was destroyed in 1792 and only one foot of the horse is preserved and is now in the Louvre.

A number of bronze reductions are known to have been made. At least one was made under Girardon's personal supervision, but most date from the nineteenth century. The two oldest reductions still known today, but with variants to the shape of the ground, are those at Windsor Castle and in the Hermitage in St. Petersburg. The Houghton model has the same ground as the original reduction signed by Girardon, rather than the full cast ground of the model at Windsor, suggesting that the Houghton model is possibly one of the earlier models of this important French sculpture.

51

^ V G A R N I T U R E F R O M T H E Amsterdam workshop of Jacob Sang comprising a large covered goblet commemorating a silver wedding anniversary and two kraamvrouw covered glasses. Holland, dated 1759

Height: IS'/zin (39.5cm) 9'/4in (23.5cm)

^ L.C

Antique Glass at 141 New Bond Street

Glass engraved by San;^ illustrated by kind permission of the Trustees of the British Museum

THE WESTENDORP - WIJLICK GARNITURE

Jacob Sang was the most illustrious copper wheel glass engraver in the Netherlands during the eighteenth century. We know he was born in the 1720s, probably in Saxony, and by 1752 he was known to be working and living in Amsterdam. Jacob Sang lived in Amsterdam for the remainder of

his life and died in the 1780s. His work is represented in most of the major museums in the world,

usually engraved on wine glasses. There are only two really large covered goblets signed by him which still exist: the one illustrated on page 52 and one illustrated in black and white on page 53, which was acquired by the British Museum from the executors of Felix Slade in 1869. The British Museum's example is signed and dated 1757.

Our glass is unique in having filigree decoration in the figure-of-eight stem and the figure-of-eight finial and is signed and dated 1759. The front of the glass is decorated with an emblem representing fidelity and eternity and the figures XXV signifying the 25th wedding anniversary of the couple for whom it was made. It bears the inscription:

HET HEILLICHT, DAT DEEZ' ECHT MET ZILVREN STRAALEN GROET, OMSCHYN', TOT'S HEMELS EER, HEM EENS MET GOUDEN GLOED. VYFENTWINTIGIAARIGE TROUWDAG VAN DEN HEERE JAN WESTENDORP EN MEIUFFROUWE SARA VAN WYLICK, GEVIERD BINNEN AMSTELDAM, 7 SPROKKELMAAND, 1759

This translates as follows:

May the beneficial light - which greets this marriage with silver rays - eventually shine upon it with a golden glow in Heaven's honour.

The twenty-fifth wedding-anniversary of Mr Jan van Westendorp and Mrs Sara van Wijlick, celebrated in Amsterdam, 7 February, 1759.

The reverse of the glass is engraved with a representation of the church and city where the couple were married. This glass is a garniture (note the identical engraving on the lids) with two kraai7wrouzv covered glasses. The word kraamvromv has no direct translation into English but it refers to the ceremonies and rituals concerning the treatment by the mother of her new born baby. Illustrated is an oil painting by M. Naiveu (1647-1721) from the

Painting by M. Naiveu reproduced by kind permission of the Stedelijk 'De LakenhaV Museum, Leiden.

Stedelijk 'De Lakenhal ' Museum, Leiden, showing a scene very similar to the scenes engraved on our two glasses, and, due to the inability to photograph glass in the round, we are showing an artist's impression of these two glasses.

The Victoria and Albert M u s e u m has a fine pair of kraamvrouw glasses both signed by Jacob Sang. Our glasses are engraved by a different hand, but are obviously en suite with the central glass. This is further proof of what has been suspected for some time, that Jacob Sang had a workshop with assistants with Jacob himself engraving just the masterworks. Miss Anna Lameris of Amsterdam has found an advertisement of the period in the Amsterdamsche Courant which translates as follows:

'In Amsterdam in the Hartestraat the second house from the Keizersgracht, in the English glass shop of Jacob Sang, Master Glass Engraver are for sale English mezzotint prints after paintings, some funny ones after 'Hoggart'*, big and small; for good prices.'

*Hoggart is the misreading of the name Hogarth the English painter.

Drawings of the engraving on the kraamvrouw glasses, by Paul Sharp.

55

Antique Glass

A M A G N I F I C E N T CUT GLASS C A N D E L A B R U M by Baccarat, supported on a heavy electro-plated silver frame to which are attached a myriad of exquisitely cut glass components of the highest quality. French, circa 1890


The Baccarat factory was founded in 1764 in Lorraine in eastern France and suffered many vicissitudes until it was purchased in 1816 by Aime Gabriel d'Artigues, who was already the owner of the Voneche glasshouse in Belgium.

By the time Louis XVIII visited the Exposition Nationale in Paris in 1823, Baccarat had turned to the production of lead crystal and were able to mount a fabulous display. The Baccarat factory, being set in the forest, relied on wood for the fire of its furnaces, unlike in England where coal had been used since the early seventeenth century. By the 1860s wood had become scarce and the factory turned to using a form of coal gas furnace, invented by the German engraver, Boetius.

The factory continued to have Royal patronage; Charge X visited it in 1828 and ordered a dinner service for the Tuileries and Louis Philippe and Napoleon II also visited the glassworks. During the reign of Napoleon III, Baccarat exhibited at the International Exhibition of 1855 and 1867. The factory started to compete with F. & C. Osier of England in the production of large chandeliers and items of glass furniture, which they sold in countries where the French influence was

strong such as Persia, Turkey and Egypt. It was not until 1886 that Baccarat opened a branch in Bombay enabling it to compete in the Indian market, which up to then had been the almost total preserve of Osier.

Our twenty-four light candelabrum is numbered 6 and is one of a series produced by Baccarat initially for candles and later on for electricity. Our illustration shows a photograph taken of the Baccarat showroom housed in the rue de Paradis in Paris in about 1898. (Note a similar candelabrum on the right hand side of the photograph.)

Baccarat have recently started to make reproductions of this candelabrum. However, modern labour costs mean that the quantity and quality of cutting of the facets on the stem pieces and drops is considerably reduced. As acid is now used for polishing, rather than pumice powder on a cork wheel, the cutting of our candelabrum has that characteristic knife-sharp feel, missing in contemporary cut glass, together with the enhanced brilliance resulting from this labour intensive method of production.

r r r

Photo'^mph of Le Depot, rue de Pnradis, circa 1898, reproduced by kind permission of the Baccarat Museums.

57

V A' .

^ '•.ks'Vi

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58

Antique Glass

A P A I R O F R E G E N C Y C U T G L A S S C L A R E T J U G S B E A R I N G T H E crest of Charles, 11th Duke of Norfolk Warrington, circa 1810

Height: IS'/zin (34cm)

In 1806 the Prince of Wales made a civic visit to Liverpool. In honour of this occasion the Mayor of Liverpool ordered a superb suite of glass from the nearby firm of Perrin Geddes and Co of Bank Quay, Warrington. This suite was engraved with the Liverpool Corporation Crest. A contemporary commentator wrote, 'The Prince of Wales had greatly admired the Glasses that were procured for his table at the dinner, and that he had requested the Mayor to order him a few dozen Glasses of the same s o r t . . . ' The Corporation graciously complied, but were probably rather dismayed when the total sum came to £1,306.18s. The final order consisted of 12 decanters, 30 coolers, 6 carafes or water jugs, 6 dozen claret jugs and 6 dozen port glasses which was immediately supplemented with a further consignment of 12 decanters, 4 dozen wines, 4 dozen clarets and 3 dozen goblets. The majority of this suite is still in Windsor Castle, engraved with the Prince of Wales's crest, although a few examples have 'escaped' from the Royal family and a decanter and glass may be seen in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

The Bank Quay glassworks opened in 1756. By 1794 it had changed hands and was then owned by Josiah Perrin and the Geddes family, the latter were also involved in the glass industries of Glasgow and Alloa. At the time of the Prince of Wales's visit to Liverpool, the company was a large and prosperous concern and Royal patronage did it no harm.

The distinctive style of cutting with its swirling style to the shoulder of the decanter and its heavy fan cut base is found on wine glass coolers and wine glasses as well as the decanters. The Corning Museum of Glass has one of the original decanters engraved with the crest of the Liverpool Corporation. A few years ago Mallett's possessed a pair of decanters but with no engraved crest. The Royal Collection contains no claret jugs, neither does the literature record any, making the discovery of these claret jugs particularly exciting.

The attribution to Charles, 11th Duke of Norfolk, is based on the crest engraved here being on a chapeau giiles turned up ermine a lion statant with a tail extended or gorged with a ducal coronet argent. Although this exact crest was occasionally used by some other members of the Howard family the only probable user of this crest at this time was the 11 th Duke, who succeeded to the title in 1768 and died in 1815.

The above note is based on research bij Cherry and Richard Gray published in The Journal of The Glass Association, Volume 2 1987

59

M A L L E T T at Bourdon House

An Empire Paris porcelain chinoiserie vase U'Ain (37cm)

A RARE CHARLES II CASKET

A V E R Y F I N E A N D R A R E L A R G E S I Z E D N E E D L E W O R K C A B I N E T O F rectangular form profusely decorated with scenes, figures, castles, flowers, birds and animals, partly in stumpwork and partly with flower and other motifs in satin stitch, together with a most unusual glazed display case of satinwood with mahogany and ebonised mouldings.

The needlework cabinet circa 1660, the glass case circa 1800

Height of case: 11 in (28cm) Width: 22in (56cm) Depth: 17in (44cm)

While a surprisingly large number of amateur works by young embroideresses survive from the late seventeenth century, this needlework cabinet or casket is exceptional for its unusually large

proportions and its good condition. It was traditional for small girls to learn to sew even before they could read or write, beginning with samplers of various kinds. For a final masterpiece some would graduate to making picture panels of work such as is seen on this box and a few would get as far as making a series of vignettes which would be made up professionally into a cabinet or casket. A charming note inside Hannah Smith's box in the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, written by her, records the completion of such work and continues '.. . 1 was almost twelve years of age, when 1 went 1 made an end of my cabinette, at Oxford ... and my cabinet was made up in the year of 1656 at London'.

Many features of our box are typical but especially charming and more varied than in many cases. Moreover, the condition is remarkably good with only moderate fading and next to no damage to the satin background which is usually the first part to perish. The subject matters depicted are derived from pattern books such as Richard Shoreleyker's A Schole House for the Needle (1624), and Bake of Flowers, Fruits, Beastes, Birds and Flies published by Peter Stent in 1650. The overall design was, however, probably drawn out for the embroideress by a pattern drawer with various subjects, chosen perhaps by the small girl or her mother. These take on a form that is entirely typical of the

The needleimrk casket in its satinwood case

A Rare Casket

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i

best of such work, composed as separate pieces for four sides of the cabiriet and with Hvely bands of animals, fish, flowers and insects for the border of the lid. The doors on the front depict the traditional King and Queen, undoubtedly Solomon and the Queen of Sheba in this case, since the King is holding a book entitled Wisdom. Both are worked in magically fine detail with magnificent curly hair and true needle lace for the Queen's collar. The figures are supported by a colourful parrot with featherings and a peacock, both birds magical and exotic in the late seventeenth century. It was traditional for biblical Royal figures to be portrayed in the manner of the lately lamented, martyred King Charles I and his consort. Also in contemporary Caroline dress are figures of a couple with their attendants in a flowery landscape with castles and tents on one end and biblical figures on the other: Abraham and his camel being refreshed at the well by Rebecca; the well is incidentally a grand Renaissance one, while Abraham's hat on the ground is charmingly inconsistent with the archetypal biblical costume.

The top of the casket shows a triumph of design with a central picture surrounded by huge and exotic flowers at the corners: lily, tulip, carnation, rose; together with a lion, a stag, large birds, a hound, a rabbit, insects and a coral-bordered pool with fish. The central oval medallion with scrolling mouldings contains a main picture; this minor masterpiece of embroidery depicts Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac and God's merciful release from this horror by providing an alternative: a ram caught in a nearby thicket. This is undoubtedly derived from a woodcut or engraved illustration from a contemporary bible and is executed with a variation of interesting techniques and stitches, as are the other parts of the casket. Some of the work is made sculptural by the use of stumpwork, padded needlework to give shape, and loose flapping pieces in buttonhole stitch to give reality to flowing robes, bending leaves and unfurling flower petals. The edges of the casket are trimmed with silver thread gallon containing gilt strips and the interior has a

64

A Rare Casket

jewel compartment with numerous small drawers with the original quilted pink satin edged with silver gallon and with silvered ring handles. Carrying handles on the outside ends of the cabinet, together with locks, complete the work of the professional craftsman who transformed the small girl's panels of embroidery into a marvellous object which has survived in remarkable condition for over three hundred years.

The glass case is itself a remarkable and unusual example of its kind being beautifully made and a fitting piece of furniture for the display of the cabinet, also protecting it from dust which is the worst enemy for textiles, except for excessive sunlight. This case has been attributed to the workshops of Gillow of Lancaster.

65

A SARGUEMINES TORCHERE

A , VERY RARE EARLY 1 9 T H C E N T U R Y F R E N C H simulated Korgon miniature torchere by the Sarguemines workshop. The base stamped 'Sarguemines'. France, circa 1820

Height: 34in (87cm) Width at base: Sin (21cm)

In France at the beginning of the nineteenth century, the abolition of restrictive guild regulations had created a climate favourable to entrepreneurs who were willing to experiment with new manufacturing methods. They all vied for attention, taking part in the exhibitions specially created to encourage their activity.

One of the most extraordinary firms to participate regularly in such exhibitions was the pottery founded in 1778 by Joseph Fabry at Sarreguemines in Eastern France. In 1792, he took as his partner Francois-Paul Urtzschneider, who was to prove the driving force for the firm's inventiveness for nearly fifty years.

At the Exposition de I'Industrie in An X (1802), Urtzschneider won a gold medal 'pour la perfection qu'il avait donnfe aux poteries communes de sa fabrique' (for the perfection of the common pottery of his manufactory).

As related in a report in 1810 by the Minister of the Interior, a further medal was obtained in 1806 for 'une pate form& de cailloux pulverises avec laquelle on etablit des vases susceptibles de prendre un beau poli imitant pour les coleurs et pour la durete, le porphyre, le granit, le basalte, le jaspe etc' (a paste made of powdered stone which is formed into vases which can be polished and which imitate both in colour and hardness porphyry, granite, basalt, jasper etc). The high polish was obtained on a lathe.

The samples were noticed by Vivant Denon, Napoleon's Directeur General des Musees, who recommended them to the Emperor, and as a result, from 1810 to 1814, a number of vases and torcheres were delivered to decorate the Imperial palaces and gardens. Some, presumably those for interior use, were to be mounted in gilt-bronze.

It appears that Vivant Denon himself may have had a hand in their design. A great connoisseur of Antiquity, he had formed his first collection of Antique vases in the 1780s, and sold them to Louis XVI. He is renowned for the account he wrote of his travels to Egypt with Napoleon; the Emperor was to follow Denon's advice blindly, aware that he himself had no taste in art whatsoever.

The order included no fewer than eight pairs of magnificent torcheres, approximately two metres in height, elaborately mounted in gilt-bronze. Although their final destination is not recorded, it is possible that some were intended for the Tuileries Palace, which Napoleon adopted as his Paris residence. A pair of these was recently on the art market in London.

Before the final order was made, unmounted samples or maquettes were apparently produced. It seems likely that the present candelabrum is one of these, since it is almost identical in shape to the surviving torcheres, but with no minor variations which would suggest a slight alteration in the final design.

The high sheen of the polish could also indicate that it was a finished piece in its own right, perhaps intended to be shown at one of the Expositions de I'lndustrie. Like other surviving examples of the factory's production, such as a bowl-shaped chandelier, it is stamped SARGUEMINES.

John Whitehead

Our thanks to Carlton Hobhsfor their help in cataloguing this piece.

An ormolu mounted torchere f.v Carlton Hobbs.

67

68

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FOUR CHAIRS STAMPED BY JEAN-JACQUES POTHIER

A VERY RARE SET OF FOUR LOUIS XVI G I L T W O O D side chairs, the back and seat bordered with a finely carved guilloche motif, the legs being turned and fluted. Stamped Toth ier ' . French, circa 1770-75

Height of back: 35in (89cm) Width of seat: lOVdn (52cm) Height to seat: WAin (41cm)

Provenance: Duchesse d'Uzes. Illustrated in 'Maitres Ebenistes Frangais' by Jean Nicolay, p 381, fig D.

Jean-Jacques Pothier's career spans the styles we know as Louis XV and Louis XVL the rococo and neo-classical phases of French art. He became a maitre-memdsier in 1750, and many sets of simple rococo chairs survive from the first part of his career.

Pothier must have enthusiastically embraced the arrival of the gout grec in the early 1760s, for his chairs begin to be decorated with elegant carved classical motifs, grafted on to frames still of firmly rococo shape. By contrast, few sets of chairs by Pothier survive in the wholly neo-classical style (Louis XVI), but those which do are all of the finest quality, with elegant and elaborate carving. They are usually gilded.

The strict corporative rules of the Ancien Regime required that fine sculpture on chairs be executed not by the menuisier who made the frame, but by a specialist sculptor, usually a member of the Academie de St. Luc (there was nothing to prevent a menuisier being a member of this Academic too, but few chose to be). It would appear that in the 1770s Pothier must have been employed to supply chair frames ready for carving.

It was normally a marchand-tapissier or marchand-mercier who commissioned such furniture and who controlled the design, employing (on a free-lance basis) the designer and the sculptor as well as the menuisier. The fact that identical chairs are found by Pothier and George Jacob may mean that they worked for the same retailer, perhaps Dominique Daguerre, the greatest of the mcrciers of this age, who supplied the most prestigious cHentele at Court, including Marie-Antoinette.

The evidence of Pothier's surviving neo-classical seat furniture confirms that by this time (the 1770s), he was employed to provide frames which would be carved by some of the finest sculptors. Unfortunately their name is seldom recorded, except when they worked for the Garde-Meuble de la Couronne. But these sculptors, such as Babel and Vallois, also had a private clientele, and the similarity of their royal work with that of Jacob, Sene, Pothier or other prestigious chairmakers for private clients, confirms that in France in the

eighteenth century the interiors of the noble hotels of the Faubourg Saint-Germain were just as delightful, elegant and refined as those of the Palace of Versailles.

The duchesse d'Uzes was born Julie-Victorie de Gondrin d'Antin. She was the daughter of the due d'Antin, who, as Surintcndant des Batiments for Louis XIV and during the first part of the reign of Louis XV, had been responsible for the most important royal decorating projects for nearly thirty years. Her husband, Frangois-Emmanuel de Crussol, due d'Uzes (1728-1802) was the first peer of France (his was the oldest of the ducal titles). He had a distinguished though not meteoric military career, served as lieutenant general for the provinces of Saintonge and Angoumois, and was made a chevalier of the order of the Saint-Esprit by Louis XVI in 1776.

In 1766, the due and duchesse d'Uzes decided to rebuild on a grand scale their hotel in the rue Montmartre. A competition was organised, which was won by the young Claude-Nicolas Ledoux. This house, sadly demolished in 1870, was one of the grandest early neo-classical buildings in France. The interiors were designed by Ledoux, and included the famous salon de compagnie boiseries, now in the Musee C^rnavalet, carved by Jean-Baptiste Boiston with elaborate military trophies, commemorating the due's role in battles such as Fontenoy.

Boiston, one of the leading lights of the Academie de Saint Luc was also working for the prince de Conde at the Palais Bourbon at this time. He executed all sorts of decorative sculpture, in plaster or in wood, and modelled ornament to be made in gilt-bronze. It is quite possible that the fine carving on these chairs is his work, perhaps for a boudoir or bedroom at the Hotel d'Uzes.

John Whitehead

69

Bourdon House

A F I N E Q U A L I T Y E A R L Y 1 9 T H C E N T U R Y O R M O L U model of Tra jan 's co lumn by Wi lhe lm Hopfgarten and Benjamin Jollage. Italy, circa 1815

Height (with base) : 36in (91cm)

This type of table top ornament, inspired by monuments from antiquity, were during the Empire period typical pontifical gifts to reigning European families. One finds both obelisks and columns, and though often not signed, they are almost certainly the work of the bronze makers Wilhelm Hopfgarten (1779-1860) and Benjamin Jollage (1787-1837), who had a workshop in Rome in the Via dei Due Macelli. There are a pair of columns by them which are now in the Pinacoteca Ambosiana in Milan. Similar columns can also be found, equally of Papal provenance, in the Palazzo Pitti. Finally, columns can be seen in a watercolour of the studio of Prince Metternich by F. Heinrick.

71

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A^ LN UNUSUAL R E G E N C Y MAHOGANY BREAKFRONT bookcase, the pilasters decorated with inlaid ebony paterae and acanthus motif, mounted with bronze leopard's heads and with the exceptional feature of a secret door in one bay,- concealed by false books. English, circa 1815

Width: I S m (394cm) Depth: l « n {36cm)

A . VERY RARE AND UNUSUAL SHERATON PERIOD demi-lune tortoiseshell veneered commode with mahogany crossbanding, the sides and front being decorated with an oval motif. England, circa 1780


74

A LATE 1 8 T H CENTURY ENGLISH OIL PORTRAIT OF A woman dressed as Hebe with Zeus in the form of a large eagle drinking from a cup standing beside her, she dressed in yellow and white with flying scarf, bearing a silver cup. In the manner of Angelica Kauffman. England, circa 1770

A VERY FINE AND RARE GEORGE III HAREWOOD tricoteuse, the top having a fall front and an applied engraving of classical figures at its centre, the sides having kingwood crossbanding and boxwood stringing, v^ith a bowed shelf stretcher, standing on splay legs inlaid with rosewood and terminating in brass castors. England, circa 1785

Height: 31in (78cm) Width: 27in (68cm) Depth: le'/zin (42cm)

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76

A; . REGENCY SIMULATED ROSEWOOD CHIFFONIER with scrolled broken pediment; the top decorated with a gilt scale motif, the side panels having Chinese landscapes with figures in gold on a simulated rosewood ground; each door painted with a Chinese figure in gold on a red ground, with a gilt Chinese fence border. England, circa 1810

Height: 52'/2in (133cmr Depth: 13'/2in (34cm) Width: 32'/2in (81cm)

77

A, . GOOD QUALITY REGENCY MAHOGANY FOUR tiered etagere with lattice sides and back, having octagonal column supports. England, circa 1810


J ^ RARE SET OF FOUR EARLY 1 8 T H CENTURY SIDE chairs with oval backs and cabriole legs terminating in boldly carved scroll toes, decorated in off-white with gilt enrichments Probably German, circa 1740

Maximum height: 36'/2in (93cm) Maximum width: 23in (58cm)

These chairs have similarities to those in an engraving illustrated in Heinrich Kreisel Die Kunst des Deutschen Motels, pi 1083, a design for chairs, Augsburg, Franz Xaver Habermann.

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A RARE LATE 1 8 T H C E N T U R Y C O M M O D E , the serpentine sides, bow front and shaped top veneered with panels of Chinese black lacquer decorated with gold, the door containing shelves and a single drawer veneered in harewood. England, circa 1780


A . VERY RARE A N D U N U S U A L PAIR OF early 18th century North Italian console torcheres being decorated with carving in high relief of a swag mounted upon an animal skin, the flanks being enriched with a dolphin on one torchere and a weasel on the other, possibly of armorial significance. Italy, circa 1735

Height: 56in (142cm) Width: 18'/2in (47cm) Depth: 17in (43cm)

80

. SET OF FOUR NORTH ITALIAN LATE 17th or early 18th century bronze plaques, possibly representing the four seasons. Italy, circa 1700

Mounted in the late 19th century on Vemis Martin ormolu mounted frames.

14 X 9in (37 x 23cm)

LN EARLY 1 8 T H CENTURY OIL PAINTING of an Italian villa in its gardens, the foreground having figures and horses by an ornamental fountain, with steps leading to a belvedere partly hidden by cypresses, the background having a large lawn leading to the villa and wooded landscape beyond. Attributed to Isaac de Moucheron, Dutch School, circa 1700 Oil on canvas, ISV* x 23y4in (68 x 60cm) In a mid 18th century pierced giltwood frame, England, circa 1760

Framed: 37 x 31 in (94 x 79cm)

83

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A VERY RARE A N D U N U S U A L PAIR OF SWEDISH P A R C E L GILT PIER mirrors enriched with decorated tole panels in the Etruscan taste, the sides being in polychrome with allegorical vignettes in the centre of each panel, the cresting having an oval of Athena in one and Mars in the other. Sweden, circa 1775


Provenance: Possibly from the Palace of Haga (Pavilion of Gustav III), Sweden.

This pair of mirrors is most unusual, being almost entirely decorated in tole. This model is previously unrecorded. The frames and cresting are of pine and the construction techniques conform to the models illustrated in Ar Mobein Akta by Torsten Sylven and Janre Fredlund, a book which closely analyses Swedish furniture construction. Therefore, we conclude that they must be of Swedish origin. However, at this date the use of 'Etruscan' or 'Pompeian' style decoration was very rare, being almost confined to the royal household. King Gustav III made a journey to France and Italy in 1783 and, in Rome, he greatly admired the Raphael rooms in the Vatican. So, on his return to Sweden, he commissioned the designer Louis Masreliez, who had spent eight years studying in Rome, to design a 'pompeian' room, as a Christmas gift for Queen Sophia Magdalena, in the Royal Palace in Stockholm. Masreliez was the first to introduce the pompeian style to Sweden and his work made him famous throughout the country. The King was so enchanted by the new style that he also commissioned Masreliez to design in this manner the Grand Salon at his country retreat at Haga. This superb room is probably the finest surviving example of its kind in Europe. The walls are divided into four sections, each celebrating a classical God: Apollo, Jupiter, Juno and Minerva. The quality and delicacy of the work is very close to that found on the mirrors here illustrated. In addition, we have the parallel use of the deity motif. Without documentary evidence, one cannot say with total certainty that these mirrors have a royal provenance, but we can say that they are Swedish and follow the pompeian design principles Louis Masreliez created for Royal enjoyment.

Photograph hy kind permission of Count Fritz von der Schulenbiirg

The Grand Salon at the Palace of Haga

85

CHRISTOPHER WOOD GALLERY

at 141 New Bond Street

The Sluggard by Frederic, Lord Leighton PRA lO'Ain (52cm)

A BOLDINI MASTERPIECE REDISCOVERED

This is the first time this superb portrait by Boldini has appeared on the market since it was painted in 1889. For over a hundred years it has remained in the same family

in France and is in almost perfect condition, on its original canvas, and in its original frame. Although recorded in the Ragghianti catalogue of 1970, its reappearance after cleaning must be regarded as a major addition to Boldini's oeuvre. Thanks to Richard Ormond, director of the John Singer Sargent catalogue raisonne project, the lady in the Boldini portrait has now been identified as Madame Roger-Jourdain, a close friend and neighbour of Sargent's in Paris. It now transpires that Madame Roger-Jourdain and her daughter were both painted by Sargent, and that Sargent, the Roger-Jourdains, and Boldini, all lived in the same street, the Boulevard Berthier.

Boldini was born in Ferrara, Italy, in 1842, the son of a painter, and the eighth of thirteen children. His precocious talent was already evident in his youth, and in 1862, he was sent to study in Florence. Here he met Telemaco Signorini and the 'Macchiaioli', a group of Italian impressionist painters, whose ideas he was quickly to absorb. Already something of a dandy, Boldini began to frequent high society and travelled to Monte Carlo, Paris and London in 1869-70. In London his portraits of Whistler and the Duchess of Marlborough were an immediate success. In 1871 he settled in Paris, where he was to live for the rest of his career.

Boldini's success in London preceded his arrival in Paris, where he quickly became one of the most sought after of all society portrait painters. At first he lived in the area of the Boulevard de Clichy but in the 1880s he moved to the Boulevard Berthier, close to the Avenue de Villiers. This was a highly fashionable area for artists, north of the Arc de Triomphe and the Pare Monceau, and was known as the 'Plaine Monceau'. In 1886 Boldini took over the studio of Sargent at number 41 Boulevard Berthier. He stepped, literally, into Sargent's shoes, and it is interesting to note who Boldini's neighbours were. They included the Roger-Jourdain's, at number 45, and the painter Ernest Duez, at 39. Also in the same street were Georges Rochegrosse, Paul Chabas, and the famous tenor Caruso. Thus Boldini would soon have met Madame Roger-Jourdain, as her husband Joseph was also a painter, and he painted this portrait of her in 1889. By all accounts Madame Roger-Jourdain was an elegant and charming woman, a noted hostess, and friend of many prominent artists and musicians of the day. She was a friend of the composer Gabriel Faure, who dedicated 'Aurore' to her in 1884. In 1886, she was painted by Paul-Albert Besnard, another near neighbour, who lived in the Rue Guillaume Tell. This picture is now in the Musee des Arts Decoratifs. A picture of Faure with the Roger-Jourdains, Duez, Jacques Emile Blanche and others, by P. Georges Jeannot, is illustrated in Figaro lUustre, of March 1903, p 5.

Sargent's watercolour of Madame Roger-Jourdain is not dated but Ormond dates it to around 1883-89. Daringly for that time, it shows her lying provocatively on the grass, a parasol above her head. It is dedicated 'Madame Roger-Jourdain, hommage de John S. Sargent'. In 1889, Sargent also painted an oil of her daughter, which he inscribed and dated 'a mon amie Madame Jourdain, John S Sargent '89'. This

picture is now in the Clark Institute in Williamstown. It was in the same year, 1889, that Boldini painted his portrait of the mother. Of all the pictures of Madame Roger-Jourdain, it is the Boldini which most successfully captures her charm and vivacity. She is said to have had many lovers and admirers and must have been a noted figure in the Paris art world of the 1880s and 90s. Boldini was always receptive to feminine charm and his portraits of women are often more sensitive and penetrating than those of Sargent. It is therefore highly interesting and unusual to be able to compare portraits of the same woman by both Sargent and Boldini.

Very little seems to be known nowadays about Joseph Roger-Jourdain. Born in 1845, he followed a conventional career, and exhibited at the Salon from 1869. He painted historical and other figurative subjects, and won various medals. He followed the fashionable fads of the day, painting Japanese and North African subjects. Sargent and Roger-Jourdain both contributed to the fund to buy Manet's Oh/mpia for the Louvre. In 1889 Roger-Jourdain exhibited at the Salon a picture entitled Le Lawn Tennis en Angleterre, which would be intriguing to re-discover. He died in Paris in 1918; perhaps it will be his fate to only be remembered for his beautiful wife. She died tragically in 1928, from an overdose of sleeping pills. It was said that she never recovered from the death of her son in the First World War.

Boldini went on to become something of an institution in France, painting now famous portraits of Verdi and Robert de Montesquieu. More than any other artist, he typifies the spirit of the belle epoque, that world described by Proust in his great book La Recherche du Temps Perdus. He was a lifelong friend of Degas, and his artistic mentors included Whistler, Sargent, and Anders Zorn. His later style becomes even more mannered and exaggerated, and was criticised by Sickert as the 'wriggle and chiffon' school. His portrait of Madame Jourdain, however, is wonderfully restrained, and shows him at the height of his powers. After his death, a small Boldini museum was established at the Villa Falconiera, near Pistoia, and in 1963 a major retrospective was held at the Musee Jacquemart-Andre in Paris. This exhibition helped to revive Boldini's reputation once again, and he is now firmly established as one of the most remarkable of all late nineteenth-century painters. In an epoch noted for its virtuoso talents, Boldini stood out as the most audacious technician of them all. His portraits are the personification of fashion, of luxury and of chic.

90

Giovanni Boldini , 1842-1931 Portrait of Madame Roger-Jourdain Signed and dated 1889 Oil on canvas, 81 x 33in (206 x 83 .5cm)

Provenance: Sold by Madame Roger-Jourdain to her friend, the Duchesse de Magenta. By descent in the family of the Dues de Magenta, France.

Literature: C.R. Ragghianti, L'Oeiivre Complet de Boldini, Ed. Rizzoli, Milan 1970 p 106 no 194 (as Ritratto di Giovane Signora dall'Ombrellino Chiuso); John Milner, The Studios of Paris, Yale University Press 1988, pp 189-185 (with an illustration of the portrait of Madame Roger-Jourdain by P. A. Besnard); Richard Ormond and Elaine Kilmurray, John Singer Sargent, Catalogue Raisonne, in preparation.

91

John Frederick Lewis, RA (1805-1876) A Cairo Bazaar - The Dellal Signed and dated ] F Lewis RA/1875; also signed on reverse Oil on panel, 30 x 21 in (76 x 53.5 cm)

92

Christopher Wood Gallery

Provenance: R.A. Cosier Esq, his sale, Christie's, 4th March 1887, lot 75 (310 gns), as 'A Cairo Bazaar - Shawl Selling', bt. Vokins Stephen C. Holland, his sale, Christie's 25th June 1908, lot 70 (230 gns) D.B. Levinson Esq, who sold Sotheby's 12th July 1967, lot 61 (£1,850.00) M. Newman Ltd 1971

Exhibited: London, Royal Academy, 1876, no 222 Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Laing Art Gallery, /. F. Lewis, 1971, no 89

Literature: The Art Journal, 1876, p 232: 'All the subtle detail of Oriental architecture and tracery played on by Oriental light is as palpably visible in this picture The Mid-day Meal: Cairo, RA, 1876, no 187, as when, years ago, Mr Lewis first wakened into delight the frequenters of the Academy. The same qualities, only with more power of colour and greater breadth, come out in his Cairo Bazaar, in which we see a dellal, or broker, holding up a shawl of splendid red colour for sale.'; Claude Phillips, John Frederick Lewis, RA in The Portfolio, 1892, p 97; Major-General M. Lewis, John Frederick Lewis, F. Lewis Publishers Ltd, Leigh-on Sea 1978, pp 22 & 39, p 98, no 618, illustrated fig 66

When it was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1876, this painting was accompanied by the following text:

'In many of the nooks of Cairo, auctions are held on stated days. They are conducted by dellals, or brokers, hired either by persons who have anything to sell in this manner, or by shopkeepers. The dellals carry the goods up and down announcing the sums bidden for them with cries of 'Harraj, harraj' &c. - See Lane's Modern Egyptians

Frederick Lewis lived in Cairo between 1840 and 1851, in the quarter known as Esbekiya towards the north of the city. This was close to many of the covered markets, the sucjs, of which the Khan-el-Khalil, where auctions were held on Mondays and Thursdays, was the most famous. Here, the broker appears to be plying his trade in the area of the market devoted to rugs and textiles, watched by merchants seated on the mastabas, the stone benches.

Lewis made many studies in such markets, which were to provide the material for the finely detailed and brilliantly coloured oils he painted in England from the 1850s. He particularly favoured market subjects in the 1870s: The Bezestein Bazaar of El Khan Khalil, Cairo (private collection) was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1874, The Dellal two years later, and The Street and Mosque of Ghooreyah, Cairo (Forbes Magazine Collection), was shown posthumously in 1877. He loved to paint the complexities of the fall of light through ceilings and archways on to the wares on display, and the deep, shadowy perspectives of the narrow lanes. That these were considered by the Victorian audience to be among his best works, is evinced by the favourable comparison the critic of the Art Journal made between The Dellal and The Midday Meal, one of his greatest oils, also at the Academy in 1876.

Lewis painted less than fifty finished oils in the years

after his return from the East, self-confessedly setting out to rival, and even surpass, the delicacy of the brushwork of the Pre-Raphaelites in the mid 1850s. Yet in this small oeuvre he has left an extraordinary record of daily life in Egypt. In the 1870s, the very year The Dellal was painted, Edward Lear, himself a traveller and artist throughout the East wrote:

'There never have been, and there never will be any works depicting Oriental life - more truly beautiful and excellent ... For, besides the exquisite and conscientious workmanship, the subjects painted by J.F. Lewis were perfect as representations of real scenes and people.'

He was born into an artistic family (both his father, Frederick Christian Lewis, and his uncle, George Robert Lewis, were artists) and studied animals with Edwin Landseer (who became a leading London sporting animal and portrait painter, and was also commissioned to model the bronze lions in Trafalgar Square). Lewis also became an accomplished painter of animals and landscapes.

Lewis began to exhibit at the British Institution in 1820, and the Royal Academy in 1821. He was made a full member of the Royal Watercolour Society in 1829. A two year stay in Spain between 1832 and 1834 influenced his work a great deal, precipitating a change of subject, accompanied by a more striking use of colour and looser handling. He stayed in Rome for two years, between 1838 and 1840, and set out for Greece and the Middle East, arriving in Cairo in 1841, where he remained for ten years. He did not exhibit in London during this time, but in 1850 his watercolour The Hareem was hailed as 'faultlessly marvellous' by the eminent art critic John Ruskin. In 1855 he was elected President of the Royal Watercolour Society, but resigned in 1858 to take up oil painting. An exhibition of his work was held at the Royal Academy in 1934.

93


Frederic, Lord Leighton, PRA (1830-1896) Odalisque Oil on canvas 35y4x 18in (90.8 X 45.7 cm)

Provenance: Commissioned by Lewis Pocock in 1862 for 400 gns; B.C. Windus, Christie's, 15 February 1868 (second day), lot 323 (315 gns to Gambart); George W. Vanderbilt by 1902; William H. Vanderbilt, Parke-Bernet, New York, 18 April 1945 (first day), lot 76; W. Hendon; Christie's, 17 July 1953, lot 22 (42 gns to Muggello); Sir Michael Sobell

Exhibited: London, Royal Academy, 1862, p 14; Lent to the Metropolitan Museum, New York, by George W. Vanderbilt, 1902-19 (according to Ormond, op cit; the catalogue of the Hendon sale, 17 July 1953, gives the date of the loan as 1886-1906)

Literature: The Times, 3 May 1862, p 14; Athenaeum, no 1801, 3 May 1862, p 602; Art Journal, 1862, p 133-4; Ernest Rhys, Sir Frederic Leighton, 1895, p 66; Mrs Russell Barrington, The Life, Letters and Work of Frederic Leighton, 1906, II, pp 87-8, 383; Leonee and Richard Ormond, Lord Leighton, 1975, pp 49-50, 60,153 (no 71, as 'untraced')

Engraved: By Lumb Stocks, RA (1812-1892), for the Art Journal, (repr. Ormond, op cit pi 83); By H. Oakes-Jones in photogravure

94


This picture was one of six which Leighton exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1862. Others included Duett, a fanciful likeness of his protege John Hanson Walker, now in the Royal Collection, Michael Angela Nursing his Dying Servant, recently acquired by Leighton House; and The Star of Bethlehem, sold at Christie's on 11 June 1993, lot 107. Despite his brilliant RA debut with Cimabue's Madonna, exhibited in 1855 and bought by the Queen, Leighton had been badly treated by the hanging committee in recent years, his work being constantly poorly hung. However in 1862 the tide began to turn, even though two pictures were rejected. 'The Swan Girl, ie Odalisque, and the 'sisters' are on the line in the East Room', he told F.G. Stephens, 'the others just above or just below - they have made up by their treatment of those they have taken for the rejection of the others.' He was finally elected ARA in 1864, although the opposition which existed to his work among the more conservative RAS rather tarnished the occasion. As he wrote to Stephens, '1 can't well (speaking quite confidentially) conceive it a great honour now'.

Leighton himself was pleased with the picture, telling his father that it and Sea Echoes, another work exhibited in 1862 (untraced), were 'very luminous, and ... in that respect the best things I have done'. When the exhibition was hung he felt that 'the Odalisque looks best from general aspects'. The press agreed. 'As well as being the result of thought and study', the Art Journal observed prosaically, 'it is a bright picture, and stands out from all round it.' F.G. Stephens, writing in his still fairly new capacity of art critic of the Athenaeum, was more lyrical: '(The) figure is deliciously graceful, and in robes of lovely colour, richly embroidered, harmonises exquisitely with the scene, which is an eastern garden of deep red roses and waving trees; behind are domes and minarets seen through full-flowering shrubs. Intensely Eastern .. . ' But the warmest praise came from The Times. 'Mr Leighton's Odalisque is the most attractive of several very striking contributions of this young painter ... The picture is steeped in voluptuous calm; it is a nook from the garden of Armida, and this the subtle enchantress. As a consummate illustration of the dolce far niente - an idyll for Lotus-eaters - this work leaves nothing to be desired.'

Odalisque was commissioned for 400 guineas by Lewis Pocock, one of the founders of the Art Union of London, who was also to own Leighton's Jezebel and Ahab of 1863, (Scarborough Art Gallery). It quickly passed to Benjamin Godfrey Windus, a retired Tottenham coach-builder who had made a fortune out of a children's medicine, causing Madox Brown to give him the nickname of 'Godfrey's Cordial'. Windus formed a large collection of modern British paintings and drawings, and was particularly known for his Turner watercolours. These were a crucial source for Ruskin when he embarked on Modern Painters, and, as he recalled, it was at Windus's house that Turner 'thanked me for my book for the first time'. John Scarlett Davis's watercolour of Windus's library lined with Turners is in the British Museum. But Windus was equally discriminating in his patronage of younger artists, buying amongst others, Madox Brown's Wycliffe (Bradford), and Last of England (Birmingham), Millais's Isabella (Liverpool), Wandering Thoughts (Manchester), and The Bridesmaid (Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge),

C.A. Collins's Berengaria's Alarm (Manchester), John Brett's The Hedger (private collection), and Rossetti's Lucretia Borgia (Tate Gallery). It was a visit to Windus's collection in the summer of 1855 that gave the young William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones one of their first, formative experiences of Pre-Raphaelite paintings.

Windus owned a number of early works by Leighton, including paintings now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Birmingham City Art Gallery, the Leicester Museum and Art Gallery, and Leighton House. Most of them were studies of pretty models, the type of picture which Leighton sold most readily at this period and which held an obvious appeal for the elderly collector. Odalisque falls into this category, although, as the Ormonds point out in their monograph, the way the image is interpreted places it firmly within the early 'aesthetic' tradition. Having discussed a more overtly 'aesthetic' picture, Lieder ohne Worte (1861, Tate Gallery), in which the artist consciously develops 'the idea of finding visual equivalents for musical or natural sounds', they continue: 'Two pictures of models, painted in 1862 and 1863, follow the same genre as Lieder ohne Worte, entitled Girl Feeding Peacocks (Ormond, number 89; untraced) and Odalisque, they might almost be companion pieces, representing times of the day or contrasting aspirations, the first suggesting morning and hope, the second evening and melancholy, or, to take an art-historical view, the geniuses of Florentine and Venetian art, respectively. Both evoke an atmosphere remote in time and space, but neither is in the least concretely historical or geographical. They are simply studies of beautiful girls artfully arranged.'

The same might be said of other paintings by other exponents of 'aestheticism', pre-eminently Albert Moore, but Whistler, Rossetti and Burne-Jones to an only modified degree. Leighton, however, was remarkably advanced in embodying 'aesthetic' values in this type of composition. Moore was not to reach this point until the later 1860s, and Burne-Jones's Day and Night (Fogg Museum, Harvard) date from 1870 to 1871. These full-length figures, commissioned F.R. Leyland and soon to grace the famous 'aesthetic' interior created for him at 49 Prince's Gate, London, offer a close parallel to Leighton's two pictures if these were indeed intended to represent contrasting times of day, as the Ormonds suggest. As if to reinforce the 'aesthetic' credentials of Odalisque, the model is shown holding a fan of peacock feathers, while two butterflies hover towards the left. Peacock feathers were one of the key motifs of the Aesthetic Movement, challenged in popularity only by the sunflower; indeed Leighton himself had a stuffed peacock (still in situ) prominently displayed at the foot of the staircase in that temple of 'aesthetic' values, Leighton House. As for the butterflies, the Whistlerian parallel needs no emphasis.

The picture has been lost since 1953, and the composition was known only from Lumb Stocks' engraving in the Art Journal, seen in the Ormond's book, which represents it.

We are grateful to John Christian for his help in cataloguing this picture

95

M A I i T i K T T P I X :

Directors Rex Cooper* Chairman Peter Maitland Group Chief Executive Lanto Synge David Nickerson The Hon Peter Dixon Omar Bayoumi* *Non-executive

Mallett & Son (Antiques) Ltd 141 New Bond Street London W I Y OBS Tel: 0171-499 7411 Fax: 0171-495 3179

Mallett at Bourdon House Ltd 2 Davies Street London W I Y ILJ Tel: 0171-629 2444 Fax:0171-499 2670

Christopher Wood Ltd 141 New Bond Street London W I Y OBS Tel: 0171-499 7411 Fax:0171-495 3179

Directors Lanto Synge Managing Director Peter Maitland The Hon Peter Dixon Paula Hunt Christopher Wood Giles Hutchinson Smith Henry Neville Associate Director

Manager of Glass Department John Smith

Directors David Nickerson Managing Director Peter Maitland Lanto Synge The Hon Peter Dixon Paula Hunt Christopher Wood Thomas Woodham-Smith Jane Charlton Associate Director

Directors Christopher Wood Managing Director Peter Maitland David Nickerson

© Mallett & Son (Antiques) Ltd 1995

Designed by Paul Sharp

Printed in England by Balding + Mansell

I ^ j j

1995 Mallett Catalogue

Documents

Transcript of 1995 Mallett Catalogue