A George III Harewood, Yew Wood and Satinwood Marquetry Bookcase, Attributed To Mayhew and Ince
Circa 1780
Width: 57 in. Depth: 18 in. Height: 108 in.
Inventory Number 8496-114
Price
$98,000
Description
The swan-neck broken pediment centered by a projecting shelf above fretwork panels, above an inlaid frieze of swags and oyster-veneered lozenges; the glass-paneled doors with marquetry-banded border opening to shelves; the lower section with paneled doors and marquetry-banded borders each centering octagonal marquetry inlay, opening to drawers and original gilt-brass handles; raised on bracket feet.
Condition
As discussed in Gilbert and Beard, The Dictionary of English Furniture Makers, 1986, the firm's use of yew wood was the 'only wholly idiosyncratic veneer wood the firm used and possibly unique to Mayhew and Ince among London cabinet-makers of this date', p. 593.
Provenances
Edward T. Stotesbury (1849-1938), Whitemarsh Hall, Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania
Illustrated
Bearing a typewritten label on the back: "This large inlaid cabinet with glass front (one of a pair) loaned by me to the Pennsylvania Museum of Art is part of the inventoried contents of my residence Whitemarsh Hall, Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia and belongs in the Second Floor Hall and signed E. T. Stotesbury."
Additional Information
The prominent Philadelphia banker Edward Stotesbury was one of the wealthiest men in America in the early 20th century, and an important benefactor of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. In 1916 he and his second wife Eva Roberts Cromwell commissioned the architect Horace Trumbauer to build Whitemarsh Hall, a palatial residence which was the third largest house in the US at the time and referred to as the 'American Versailles' because of its extensive French-style gardens laid out by Jacques Gréber. The house was furnished by Duveen and decorated by White, Allom & Co. of London and Alavoine of Paris. After Stotesbury's death in 1938, his widow sold the property, and it gradually fell into disrepair and was finally demolished in 1980.