A GEORGE III MAHOGANY BUREAU-CABINET

A GEORGE III MAHOGANY BUREAU-CABINET
ATTRIBUTED TO WRIGHT AND ELWICK, CIRCA 1770
The elaborate scrolled, beaded and foliate-carved pediment centred by a plinth and with foliate and pierced strapwork brackets above a concave cornice with foliage and pendant husks, the doors with reeded gothic arched and foliate astragal glazing and enclosing two shelves and three short drawers, above a stiff-leaf waist moulding, the cleated fall front with engraved brass shield-shaped escutcheon revealing a fitted interior with pigeon holes, drawers and concealed document drawers around a central sliding compartment with mirrored architectural interior, ebony and ivory parquetry floor with central boxwood stepped plinth and with further secret drawers behind, above two short and three long drawers with rope-twist cockbeading, on an associated foliate-carved plinth with ogee bracket feet, with a concealed, spring-loaded drawer to the right side waist moulding, restorations, perhaps with later embellishments
240cm high, 117cm wide, 64cm deep

Provenance:
H. Percy Dean, Esq.
Acquired in 1909, 'A very fine Chippendale bureau bookcase with finely carved mouldings & pediment...,'

Literature:
P. MacQuoid, The Age of Mahogany, London, 1906, fig. 146

The cabinet corresponds to designs published by Thomas Chippendale in the various editions of The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director. In particular the glazing pattern of gothic arches featured in a bookcase design of 1762, pl. CXVII, and was employed in the bookcase (probably one of four) supplied by around 1766 by Chippendale for Sir Rowland Winn's London house in St. James's Square (C. Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, London, 1978, vol. II, p.41, figs. 64 and 65), while the distinctive foot pattern corresponds closely to the design for a Desk & Bookcase (bureau-cabinet) that was first issued in the first edition of the Director, 1753, and again in the third edition, 1762, pl. CIX. The latter also featured a fret-carved panel between the upper doors and the flap which Chippendale noted `may be two drawers'; in the lot offered here a bank of conventional drawers are located behind the glazed doors, while a further shallow drawer is concealed behind the leaf mouldings on the right side. The swan-neck pediment with a central vase stand bears comparison with Chippendale's bookcase design also issued in the third edition of the Director as plate XCII.

Chippendale's designs were celebrated and widely adopted by contemporaries and competitors. Among them were the Wakefield, Yorkshire, cabinet-makers and upholsterers Messrs Wright and Elwick, whose business was established in the 1750s and who became the pre-eminent furniture-makers in Yorkshire in the second half of the 18th century. Richard Wright was probably employed at, and may have directed the Soho tapestry manufactory in London before forming a partnership with Edward Elwick, furniture maker and designer, in Wakefield. Both were subscribers to the first edition of Thomas Chippendale's The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director, 1753, and they went on to supply an enormous number of houses in Yorkshire including Wentworth Woodhouse, Wentworth Castle, Temple Newsam House, Cusworth Hall, Cannons Hall and Burton Constable; they likely also worked at Nostell Priory since Chippendale referred in correspondence (in disparaging fashion) to `the Ingenious Mr. Elwick'. Their furniture often aligns closely with Chippendale's designs but with additional or more elaborate and idiosyncratic carving, as noted in Christie's catalogue for the sale of furniture from Wentworth Woodhouse, London, 8 July 1998, and elsewhere

Please note, Dreweatts have applied for a de minimis exemption licence for the ivory in this lot (X4CGM12C)