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A GEORGE III MAHOGANY BREAKFRONT BOOKCASE designed by Ralph Willett for The Great Library, Merly...
Currency:USD
Category:Everything Else / Other
Start Price:NA
Estimated At:500,000.00 - 600,000.00 USD
NOT SOLD (BIDDING OVER)
0.00USD+ applicable fees & taxes.
This item WAS NOT SOLD. Auction date was 2002 Jun 04 @ 11:00UTC-08:00 : PST/AKDT
A GEORGE III MAHOGANY BREAKFRONT BOOKCASE designed by Ralph Willett for The Great Library, Merly House, Dorset, Circa 1772, The molded and dentiled cornice above a frieze of finely applied floral swags and foliage centered by a mask, and with an arrangement of seven glass panelled doors enclosing adjustable shelves and two pairs of fluted pilasters with Ionic capitals, above a paneled base enclosed by seven doors, on a molded plinth 120 X 240 X 33 in. 305 X 610 X 84 cm - $500,000-600,000 Provenance ralph willett, the great library, merly house, dorset, circa 1772-1814. Literature willett, ralph. a description of the library at merly in the county of dorset. london, 1785. Knox, Tim. "A Mahogany Bookcase from the Great Library at Merly in Dorset", The Furniture History Society (February 2000), pp. 1-3. The name of Ralph Willett, an ardent collector of early printed books, is well known to bibliophiles. Less well known, however, is the great library, which he built to house them in 1772 at his seat, Merly House near Canford Magna in Dorset. This stupendous room, which was some eighty feet long and twenty-three feet wide, must have been one of the most ambitious country-house libraries of the 18th century. It no longer survives, having been demolished after the sale of its contents in 1814, and is almost totally forgotten today. However, fortunately it is commemorated by a luxurious publication entitled A Description of the Library at Merly in the County of Dorset, written and published by Willet himself, with a text in both English and French, first dedicated to George III and illustrated with 22 engraved plates showing the remarkable decorations of the room. Most of the book is devoted to a description of the room's ornamental plasterwork, designed by Willett himself and illustrating no less ambitious the subject of the progress of civilisation. But there is also a plan of the room, which shows that its interior was almost wholly lined with 'Bookcases of Mahogany-enriched with a complete Ionic order'. A plan, elevation and section of one of these bookcases forms the subject of the third engraved plate of the Description. This depicts an elaborate breakfront bookcase of architectural form and is an interesting published design for an ambitious and bespoke piece of 18th century furniture. It has, I believe, hitherto remained unnoticed by historians of English furniture. The bookcases, which, like the rest of the Library decorations, were designed by Willett himself (each plate of the Description is signed 'R. Williett inv.'), were lost when the Library was destroyed by Willett's heirs. Although it is difficult to believe that such magnificent items of furniture, thirteen feet four inches high and made of solid mahogany, were actually destroyed in 1814, nothing has been heard of them since. The bookcase was recognised by Tim Knox as one of the bookcases from Ralph Willett's Library at Merly. It probably once occupied one of the end walls of the room but lacks its upper stage and cresting, described by Willett in his Descriptions as 'an ornamental scroll' on which is written the Kinds of Books contained in the case, surmounted by the Lamp of Science, with an Inscription of Non Extinguatur'. However, the rest of the bookcase survives intact, including its Ionic pilasters and richly carved frieze. Its maker will probably always remain unknown, for Willett's papers were all destroyed earlier this century, but it is tempting to see in its design the influence of James 'Athenian' Stuart, whom Willett consulted about other aspects of the decoration of his great Library. the Merly bookcase is an important documented piece of 18th-century English library furniture. It is also interesting as a representative of that rare genre: patron-designed furniture of the period. fig 1 ground plan of the library at merly house with the present bookcase at one end of the room fig 2 elevation at the present bookcase
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Tuesday May 28 10:00AM to 5:00PM;Wednesday May 29 10:00AM to 5:00PM;Thursday May 30 10:00AM to 5:00PM;Friday May 31 10:00AM to 5:00PM;Saturday June 1 10:00AM to 5:00PM;Sunday June 2 1:00PM to 5:00PM; Monday June 3 10:00AM to 5:00PM
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