A Regency rosewood, parcel-gilt and gilt-bronze mounted side cabinet, attributed to James Newton, early 19th century

Partridge Fine Arts, London, 1995.

Recent Acquisitions; Partridge Fine Arts Plc, ed. Lucy Morton, London, 1995.

James Newton (1760-1829) first began his apprenticeship in at the age of fourteen, going on to qualify as a master cabinet-maker in 1781 and working with Lawrence Fell until he began trading independently in 1789. He went on to create high-quality furniture for prestigious aristocratic commissions in the first decades of the nineteenth century, including for the Earl of Jersey at Osterley Park and the Lords Brownlow at Belton House. Giles Elwood notes in his article on James Newton that “most of Newton’s furniture was made [in-house] at his workshops in Wardour Street”, including cabinet furniture like the present lot, with the only exception being heavily-carved furniture pieces and boiserie panels¹.

The attribution of this side cabinet to James Newton can be justified through stylistic comparisons with a number of comparable examples that are also attributed to him:

 - The earliest example chronologically is a pair of chiffoniers by James Newton that sold as lots 320 and 321 from the collection of Maureen, Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava at Christie’s London, 25^th March 1999. These two chiffoniers bear the trade label for Newton & Son and feature colonnettes, paw feet and circular mounts at the corners that are all similar to the present lot. 

 - A pair of side cabinets attributed to Newton with identical ebonised and parcel-gilt colonnettes and ribbon-enlaced mounts at the corners, as well as a similar use of angled rosewood veneer to the present lot sold at Christie’s London, 21^st April 2005, lot 209 

 - A pair of chiffoniers attributed to Newton, also with identical colonnettes (though gilt) and mounts at the corners, sold at Christie’s London, 9^th June 2005, lot 48 

 - A pair of marble-topped cabinets attributed to Newton, with stylistically similar colonnettes and mounts and with paw feet closely similar to the present lot, sold at Christie’s London, 5^th June 2008, lot 68 

Several additional identified pieces have close stylistic commonalities with the present lot. At Christie's London, 29th April 1965, a side cabinet was offered as lot 38 which has the same form and decoration to the present lot, including colonnetttes, mounts, pad feet and the galleried shelves on the ends - the only differences are in the lacquer panels, which have different designs, and the marble tops. A significant comparable pair of bookshelves is also well-documented: first pictured in 1931 at Lord Gerald Wellesley’s residence at 11 Titchfield Terrace in London,² and once Wellesley became the 7^th Duke of Wellington, his collection merged with that of the 1^st Duke of Wellington and they moved to the family’s Hampshire seat at Stratfield Saye. The antecedents for this style of colonnette is ultimately in the pattern books of Thomas Hope (1807) and George Smith (1808): Smith’s design for a leg in this manner and Hope’s design for a torchère are both reproduced in John Harris’ book of Regency furniture designs.³

The form and decoration of this cabinet brings together several concurrent developments Regency design. The form of the low cabinet, with shelves and the quarter-cylindrical corners, was popularised by the similarly-shaped chiffoniers by Marsh and Tatham at Southill Park, and ultimately derived from pre-Revolutionary French models, such as the late-1780s Weisweiler console tables in the Royal Collection (RCIN 13) and the similar late-1780s Riesener commodes in the Frick Collection (1918.5.71). As mentioned above, the influence of Hope is apparent in this cabinet, who was a key driver of the Greek Revival in the early nineteenth century. The central panel is linked to the increased interest in the Far East, which leads English furniture to incorporate Asian materials such as Japanese lacquer into their furniture and also to create entire spaces in the chinoiserie style, famously exemplified in the George IV’s lavish Brighton Pavilion.

¹ Giles Ellwood, 'James Newton', Furniture History, 1995, pp.129-205.

2 Frances Collard, Regency Furniture, Woodbridge, 1985, p.268.

³ John Harris, Regency Furniture Designs from Contemporary Source Books 1803-186, London, 1961, figs. 135 and 219.