A MID-VICTORIAN WALNUT DISPLAY CABINET-ON-STAND mid-19th cen...

Hammer

£19,000

A MID-VICTORIAN WALNUT DISPLAY CABINET-ON-STAND mid-19th century, of George II style, the rectangular top with scrolled corner brackets, above a mirrored frieze and a pair of glazed doors with quatrefoil borders, enclosing a grey watered-silk lined interior with four shaped adjustable shelves, the lower section with a pair of glazed doors below a quatrefoil-pierced gadrooned waist moulding, on quatrefoil pierced legs with pierced angle brackets, 215cm high x 107cm wide x 37cm deep .

Provenance: The Brymer family at Ilsington House, Puddletown, Dorset

The cabinet-on-stand is characteristic of the ‘Chippendale Revival’ style, which was popular in the 1830s and 1840s after John Weale claimed his collection of engravings published c. 1834 were after Thomas Chippendale’s Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director, 1759-1764, when in reality they were fanciful reimaginings (see Bowett & Lomax, Thomas Chippendale: A celebration of British Craftsmanship and Design, ~2018, p. 192, no. 8.5). This coincided with a revival of interest in the Gothic style of decoration and architecture, encouraged by the contemporary publications of the leading Gothic revivalist architect A. W. N. Pugin and others. Whilst Pugin encouraged a medievalist approach to decoration, others sought to revive earlier popular styles including the great age of English furniture, epitomised by the work of Thomas Chippendale. Chippendale’s famous ‘Violin’ Bookcase at Wilton House, Wiltshire, also included a mirror in its door; the compact china cabinet supplied for the 5th Earl of Dumfries for Dumfries House, Ayrshire in the late 1750s is designed in a loosely exotic style.