A GEORGE III MAHOGANY SECRETAIRE-DRAWER BREAKFRONT-BOOKCASE ATTRIBUTED TO THOMAS CHIPPENDALE
Width: 74.5” / 190cm
Depth: 19.75” / 50cm
Further images
Provenance
The Collection Mr & Mrs John R. Donnell at Ker Arvor, Newport, USA (where pictured in situ)
Literature
C. Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale (London, 1978), Vol.II, p. 48, fig. 45
An early George III mahogany breakfront-bookcase, the swan-neck open fretwork pediment with rosette terms centering a platform above a dentil-moulded cornice and four astragal glazed doors enclosing adjustable shelves, the lower section with a pagoda waist moulding above a central secretaire drawer with fitted interior and inset panel of hide, further drawers and four paneled cupboard doors enclosing adjustable mahogany shelves, retaining original chased-brass handles and standing on a plinth base.
Following his designs and exhibiting the finest quality cabinet-making, this breakfront-bookcase was almost certainly made by Thomas Chippendale.
Patterns published in the first and third editions of Chippendale’s Director include numerous design features represented on this bookcase. The overall form, Chinese influence in the shape of the pagoda waist moulding, astragals and fretwork in the pediment, the panelled cupboard doors, dentil moulding and rocaille foliate handles of this bookcase are all design elements that appear across Chippendale’s patterns.
A Chippendale design for a bookcase, that survives in Sir William Chamber’s proposal for a study (c.1760-62) (illustrated) at Pembroke House, the London residence of the Earls of Pembroke of Wilton House, is very close to this bookcase, likewise featuring a swan-neck pediment.
The quality of the construction of this bookcase is truly first-rate and also suggests Chippendale’s hand. The bookcase comes in eight parts and the secretaire drawer is fitted with immaculate precision. The dovetailing is very fine and the carving characteristically fluent and confident. The mahogany is of fine, dense quality.
In its design this bookcase exhibits Chippendale’s genius for combining the exotic styles that made up the English Rococo – the Chinese, the Gothic and the Modern or French – into a fully harmonised whole. In the case of the present bookcase, a Chinese pagoda waist moulding and astragals combine seamlessly with French foliate handles. In the pediment, the Chinese open fretwork is framed by elegant C-scrolls and Swan-neck scrolls with foliate terms.