A George III Mahogany Secretaire Bookcase, Third Quarter 18th Century

Ronald Phillips Ltd., London;

From whom acquired by Aso O. Tavitian, 3 November 2004.

Although it is not possible to firmly attribute this secretaire-cabinet to Thomas Chippendale, the remarkable quality and several characteristics of its design and construction strongly suggest his manufacture. Designed in Chippendale's neo-Classical style, the bookcase features several of his trademarks: the scroll-carved terminals to the swan's-neck pediment appear in The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director, 1762, 3rd ed., pl. CVIII for a 'Desk & Bookcase' and identical glazing bars to those for a 'Library Bookcase', op. cit., XCV. Furthermore the astragal mouldings to the cupboard door below, with concave corners filled with carved interlaced motifs appear on the famous bookcase supplied by Chippendale to Sir Lawrence Dundas, Bt. (1712-1781) for the Library at 19 Arlington Street and sold Christie’s London, 18 June 2008, lot 6. A drawing for a library table in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, with a similarly conceived door and an engraved design for a desk and bookcase with similar interior arrangement also feature in the Director, op. cit., pl. CVII. 

Solid mahogany timbers are found throughout; the pine shelves to the upper section are stained red and faced with mahogany; the doors below are veneered in beautifully matched flame veneers on mahogany panels, and the use of the lustrous mahogany fronts to the secretaire drawer are all qualities associated with Chippendale. The highly neo-Classical applied carving to the secretaire drawer and door of the current piece demonstrates Chippendale’s adoption of the evolving taste In the post-Director period, the bell-flower swag-adorned drawer front over a combination of drawers and cupboards can be seen on two other secretaires attributed to Chippendale, the first most recently sold Christie’s London, 15 November 1996, lot 47 (£135,000) and another formerly in the Marjorie Wiggin Prescott Collection and subsequently sold Christie’s London, 14 May 2003, lot 50 (£341,250). The bell-flower swags can be closely compared to those on the set of eighteen dining chairs originally supplied to Viscount Melbourne for Brocket Hall which are now in the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum in Delaware, whilst the oval rosette can be found on the crest-rail of the library chairs also supplied to Brocket Hall, both of which are illustrated by Christopher Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, London 1978, vol. II, figs, 142 and 151. 

See also, M. Harris, A Catalogue of Antique Furniture and Works of Art, n.d., for a very similar secretaire bookcase, with pierced fretwork panels to the pediment centred by a platform, dentil mouldings and scroll-carved terminals, property of the late Dr. Sydney [sic] Martin (1860-1924), p. 66, no. F11098. Chippendale supplied a library table to the banker John Martin of Ham Court, Upton-upon-Severn, Gloucestershire, either on 5 September 1773 or 9 May 1775, that was sold in these rooms, HSBC's Corporate Art Collection, 21 October 2004, lot 34. It would be interesting to discover if these two Martins were members of the same family.