An Important George III Rosewood and Marquetry Secretaire Cabinet Attributed to Thomas Chippendale, Circa 1775.
#6744-78
Information
The pediment centered by a carved urn with giltwood swags and flanked by a pair of flaming urns; the mirrored door overlaid with a giltwood wreath tied with a ribbon and enclosing a fitted interior of lettered pigeon holes; the recessed side doors inlaid with paterae and enclosing shelves; the projecting lower part with a fitted secretaire drawer above a pair of doors inlaid with paterae; on a plinth base with casters.
______________________________________________________________________
The present bookcase is distinguished by several marked characteristics that connect it to the work done by Thomas Chippendale’s firm for Robert Adam in the 1770s. The distinctive fan paterae inlay with husk garlands into a rosewood ground is a feature of many of Chippendale’s most important pieces dating from this time. The flowerhead guilloche banding on the cornice is also found on many examples of his work of the mid-1770s.
The distinctive configuration of the oval mirror plate surrounded by shaped border plates and divided by giltwood astragals is related to a chimneypiece by Chippendale for Nostell Priory. This elaborate use of mirrored plates is also seen on a number of case pieces made by Chippendale, most notably a bed-press for the villa of the actor David Garrick, which is now in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum. The Garrick bed-press shares the same rectilinear silhouette as the present secretaire as well as an urn pediment hung with husk garlands. A drawing by Robert Adam, conserved in the Sir John Soane Museum, for a bookcase for Sir George Coalbrook dated 1771, is possibly a source for both this piece .