A PAIR OF GEORGE III SYCAMORE-INLAID AND EBONY-BANDED MAHOGANY SERPENTINE COMMODES, CIRCA 1775, POSSIBLY BY INCE & MAYHEW

A PAIR OF GEORGE III SYCAMORE-INLAID AND EBONY-BANDED MAHOGANY SERPENTINE COMMODES
CIRCA 1775, POSSIBLY BY INCE & MAYHEW
The shaped tops each with deep crossbanding and spot-inlaid edges, one chest with four graduated long drawers, the other with a deep top drawer faced as two drawers and two further graduated drawers, both on slender tapering square legs, repairs and replacements to feet
36 in. (91.5 cm.) high; 48 ½ in. (123 cm.) wide; 24 ½ in. (62 cm.) deep

Provenance

Almost certainly supplied to Henry, 2nd Earl Bathurst (1714-1794) for Apsley House, London or Cirencester House, Gloucestershire and by descent in the collection of the Earls Bathurst.

The following six lots were almost certainly supplied to the Lord Chancellor Henry, 1st Baron Apsley (later 2nd Earl Bathurst, 1714-94) for Apsley House, London, or Cirencester House, Gloucestershire. Lord Bathurst’s architect-designer, Robert Adam (1728-92), made thirty-three designs for furniture for Apsley House dating from circa 1771-1779 (the surviving designs now held at Sir John Soane's Museum, London) and fashionable London cabinet-makers were commissioned to supply furniture, as shown in Lord Bathurst's account with Drummonds Bank: payments to ‘Mr. Furlong’ (undoubtedly Christopher Fuhrlohg) for £70 on 16 May 1771; to ‘Mr. Cobb’ (John Cobb) for £95 on 23 April 1773 and significantly to ‘Mayhew & Co’ (indicating Ince & Mayhew) for £72 on 22 June 1779, with an earlier payment recorded to ‘Mayne & Co’ for £100 on 8 June 1779, which is probably also a payment to the firm. Whilst it is not possible to establish a categoric attribution for the furniture in this group, there are aspects of design used variously throughout the group that are linked with the known output of the reputable London cabinet-makers Ince & Mayhew, such as the applied paterae to lot 27, the tapering angles to lots 27 & 29, the wheelbacks to lot 30, the dotted edging to lot 26, the ebonised borders to lots 27 and 31, and the inlaid flower border to lot 31. It is also interesting to note that amongst the following lots there are constructional similarities to lots 26-28 and possibly lot 31, strengthening the theory that these lots in particular may emanate from a single workshop. Most notable, perhaps, are the unusual lines of tack-holes, suggesting an idiosyncratic method of securing edge veneers whilst the glue dries, common to the structure of lots 26-28.

Craftsmen like Ince & Mayhew were almost certainly recommended to Lord Bathurst by Adam with whom they may have had a sub-contracting arrangement; their joint commissions began in 1764, and continued apace, including Coventry House, Croome Court, Sherborne Castle, Audley End, Shelburne House, Northumberland House, Kimbolton Castle and Derby House. The extent of their work at Apsley House may have been obscured by payments made directly to Adam, as was often the case with large commissions, where it was the architect who generally handled payments. It seems likely that Lord Bathurst would have chosen the same cabinet-makers for his country seat, Cirencester House, as for London. However, in 1778, a local maker of some repute was employed, Henry Hill of Marlborough; in that year Countess Bathurst wrote to her agent at Cirencester, ‘… I wish you could recollect wt. Hill of Marlborough charged a Day or how he was payed’ (L. Wood, Catalogue of Commodes, London, 1994, p. 67, f/n 2). It seems highly likely that some of the furniture from Apsley House was moved in circa 1807 to Cirencester House when the 3rd Earl Bathurst sold the lease of the house to Richard, Marquess Wellesley (1760–1842).