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A REGENCY GILT-BRONZE-MOUNTED PIETRA DURA EBONY AND LAPIS LAZULI CHEST-ON-STAND CONTAINING A BERL...

Currency:USD Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:NA Estimated At:600,000.00 - 700,000.00 USD
A REGENCY GILT-BRONZE-MOUNTED PIETRA DURA EBONY AND LAPIS LAZULI CHEST-ON-STAND CONTAINING A BERL...
A REGENCY GILT-BRONZE-MOUNTED PIETRA DURA EBONY AND LAPIS LAZULI CHEST-ON-STAND CONTAINING A BERLIN PORCELAIN DéJEUNé SERVICE

Probably made by George Hume & Son, London, during the early 1820s, incorporating late-17th-century French pietra dura panels, the déjeuné service made at the Royal Berlin Porcelain Factory, 1803-1813 The rectangular ebony-veneered casket conceived in the 17th-century manner and richly mounted in gilt-bronze with guilloche, foliate, egg-and-tongue and ribbon-bound bands of berried laurel, with a rising top with foliate clasps at each corner, the edge with foliate-mounted cabochon-form shields, and inset with a hardstone-ornamented panel depicting a kingfisher worked in lapis lazuli with other colored stones, and perched on a scrolling vine with amethyst grapes, the corners below with freestanding draped caryatid figures of classical females supporting Corinthian capitals, the front with panels of lapis lazuli flanking a hardstone-ornamented panel depicting a gilt-bronze-ornamented lapis lazuli gadrooned oval bowl containing summer fruits and flowers worked in bold relief in carnelian, opal, amber, malachite and other marbles and semi-precious stones, the sides similarly inset with panels in bold relief depicting sprays of fruit and flowers, each side of the base centered by a foliate-mounted shell supporting ribbon-tied swags of fruit and flowers; the red silk velvet-lined interior with a fitted removable compartment containing a Berlin porcelain seven-piece service including a teapot, coffee pot, sugar and tea vases, cream ewer, and two cups and saucers; the ebony stand similarly richly mounted in gilt-bronze, with an incurved molded fluted edge with foliate molding and foliate clasps at the corners, each apron centered by a foliate mounted male mask issuing at each side with cornucopiae filled with fruits, and with ribbon-tied swags of fruit and flowers below on a lapis lazuli ground, the legs formed as monopodia headed by lions' heads with flowing manes with scrolled acanthus leaves below and supported on paw feet 49 X 341/2 X 28 IN. (124 x 88 x 71 CM)

$600,000-700,000 Provenance George Watson Taylor (1770-1841), Erlestoke Park, near Devizes, Wiltshire (sold at house sale held by George Robins, July 23, 1832, lot 12 for 400 guineas to Welbore Ellis Agar, 2nd Earl of Normanton (1778-1868)); thence by descent to the 6th Earl of Normanton, Somerley, Ringwood, Hampshire.

Literature Hussey, Christopher. "Somerley, Hampshire-II," Country Life (January 23, 1958), fig. 2. Borsch-Supan, Helmut. Die Kataloge der Berliner-kademie-Austellungen 1786 - 1850. Berlin, 1971, Vol. I. Köllmann, Erich and Margarete Jarchow. Berliner Porzellan: 1763-1963. 2 vols. Munich, 1987, Vol. I, p. 167, fig. 99, Vol. II, p. 538, pl. 462.

GEORGE WATSON TAYLOR Watson Taylor was born George Watson, his father also named George Watson and a native of Berwickshire, Scotland, who became a resident of Caymans, Jamaica, where he married Isabella Stevenson of Barbados. George Watson Sr. died in Jamaica before the birth of his child, his widow moving to lodgings at 41 Great Marlborough Street, London, where George Watson Jr. was born on May 1, 1771. She apparently inherited little in the way of income or property, although Thomas Raikes recorded in his diary of 1832 that before 1815 Watson had an income from his family estates at Saul's River, Jamaica, of some £1,500. He was educated at St. Mary's Hall, Oxford in 1791, although there is no record that he obtained a degree, and then entered government service, first as a private secretary of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Sir John Jeffreys Platt, later 2nd Earl and 1st Marquess of Camden, from 1795 to 1798 and subsequently in the same position to the Chief Secretary of Ireland, the 2nd Marquess of Londonderry. In 1803 he returned to London as deputy to Lord Camden, one of the Four Tellers of the Exchequer, resuming his post as Camden's private secretary in 1804, in 1805 being appointed as a Commissioner of Excise for life. In 1810 he married Anna Taylor, eldest daughter of Sir John Taylor, Bt. (1745-86), whose eldest brother Simon Taylor, the owner of large sugar plantations, was one of the wealthiest inhabitants of Jamaica. It appears that after sir john taylor's death sir simon financially supported his widow, Anna, her sisters and brother, Sir Simon Richard Brisset Taylor, who inherited these plantations on his uncle's death in 1813, which were then valued at £1,000,000. Sir Simon did not survive much longer, dying in 1815, at which time his fortune was inherited by Anna Taylor. At this time, George Watson joined his name with hers and took control of her financial affairs, embarking on an extravagant career in politics, social circles and in the world of painting and works of art. During the next 17 years he became a success in all these fields, firstly becoming an M.P. in 1816; then spending so lavishly on entertaining that The Morning Post, May 8, 1820, reported that "Early in the Month of June, Mrs. Watson Taylor opens her new mansion in Cavendish Square with a Ball and Supper which is expected to eclipse entertainments of late years"; and thirdly, being mentioned in Dr. Gustav Waagen's Works of Art and Artists in England, 1838, in his "list of the most distinguished in England since 1792, who, by diffusing the most admirable works of art in their century, have conferred upon it lasting benefit".

In 1816 he purchased a Georgian townhouse in Cavendish Square, which was formerly the home of Henry Hope, cousin of Thomas Hope, and, having failed to purchase Houghton Hall, Lord Cholmondeley having refused his offer of £364,000, he purchased Erlestoke Park, near Devizes, Wiltshire for £250,000 (Fig 1). Watson Taylor embarked upon an extensive period of decoration and furnishing of both of these houses, The Morning Post declaring on January 27, 1820 that he "has furnished only the rooms in the ground floor of his new residence in Cavendish Square. Altogether twenty-five thousand pounds have been expended already, and a very small portion of the rooms are completed". However, it was for Erlestoke that the present cabinet-on-stand was destined, forming part of the furnishings of the Grand North Drawing Room which was situated on the East front together with the Grand South Drawing Room and the Ante Drawing Room. This suite of rooms was possibly one of the most splendid conceived in England in this period, with compartmented ceilings some 141/2 feet in height, the cornice work and moldings being burnished gold and painted to correspond with the walls. Hung with massive gilt-bronze chandeliers in the Louis XIV style, the floors were closely carpeted with brilliantly covered flowers on a plum ground. The walls of the Ante Drawing Room were hung with Pomona-green satin embroidered with bouquets of moss roses, the gilt seat furniture being similarly upholstered, the Grand North and South Drawing Rooms being hung with drab satin, gilt seat furniture in the former with matching upholstery, the latter with rose-colored satin damask embellished with white silk gimp and trimming. The furniture was equally magnificent, the Ante Drawing Room containing a commode and secretaire now identified as being from Marie Antoinette's cabinet interieur at the chateau de Saint-Cloud, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and an upright secretaire of black and gold lacquer now in the J. Paul Getty Museum (Gillian Wilson, "A Secretaire by Philippe-Claude Montigny," The J. Paul Getty Museum Journal (1986), pp. 121-26). The South Grand Drawing Room contained 11 examples of 18th-century French furniture with Sèvres plaques including Madame Du Barry's gueridon and a Viennese steel and gilt-bronze table inset with a top of petrified wood, a gift from Maria Therese, the Holy Roman Empress, to her daughter Marie Antoinette, Queen of France; both these items are now in the collection at the Louvre. The furniture of the Grand State Drawing Room included eight pieces of hardstone inset furniture of which five pieces, including the present cabinet, can be attributed to Robert Hume.

Watson Taylor's extravagances, possibly coupled with the depressed price of sugar, appears to have caused a decline in his fortunes in the early 1820s resulting in a number of auctions of the contents of his Cavendish Square mansion, the first in 1823 being of the library which was disposed of in a two-part sale of 14 sessions and 2,171 lots. Shortly afterwards, a sale of some of his paintings was held at Christie's, including the Madonna and Child with the Baptist and Saint Jerome by Parmigiano and Landscape with a Rainbow by Rubens. In 1825 the mansion was sold, and a sale of the contents was held by Christie's, the catalogue including "Sumptuous Articles of Parisian...Furniture in the first style of magnificence," George IV was a major purchaser of a number of highly important pieces at the sale, which are still in the Royal collection. These included a mahogany ormolu-mounted jewel cabinet created by Riesener for the Comtesse de Provence, and a commode and a pair of encoignures by the same maker made for Louis XVI's apartment at Versailles. He also acquired a set of 17th-century bronze groups depicting the seasons and mounted with gilt-bronze candelabra by Caffieri. In 1832, Watson Taylor's fall became complete and he was declared bankrupt with debts of some £450,000. Thomas Raikes noted that "The ruin of Mr. Watson Taylor (was) declared, and executions put in his houses in town and country." This was swiftly followed by the sale of the contents of Erlestoke Mansion by George Robins comprising 3,572 lots which were disposed of in 21 sessions between July 9 and August 1. The sale was attended by such luminaries as the Dukes of Wellington and Hamilton, Sir Robert Peel, and William Beckford, who "admired in unqualified terms the taste that was displayed throughout the whole of Erlestoke," the catalogue itself declaring that the "Magnificent Assemblage of Property at Erlestoke Mansion...accumulated during the last twenty years, at enormous expense, the whole selected by George Watson Taylor, Esq. M.P. It is only necessary to observe, that within this classic Residence will be found as extensive a collection of objects of superior taste as that which adorned The Abbey of Fonthill." The 13th day of the sale included the contents of the Grand State Drawing Room among which was the present cabinet and other pieces by Hume. These five pieces were included in the catalogue as lot number 10, "A Superlatively Magnificent 6ft Console Table, the frame composed of ebony...splendidly ornamented in massive chased scroll ormolu....with suspending fruit...the 5 entablatures represent fruit, foliage, and birds of various coloured oriental agates, amethysts, opals, lapis lazuli, aventurine, jade, blood, and other precious stones...suffice to say they are worthy of a place in Windsor Castle," lot number 11 being its companion. These tables are now in the collection of the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco (unpublished and unillustrated). Lot 25 was "A Very Magnificent Ebony Cabinet...the centre door representing one of the finest specimens of bold Florentine Mosaic...the center compartments of the wings composed of Mosaics equally fine...Beautiful Italian rosso antico marble slab...supported by 4 very fine sienna marble fluted columns...most splendidly mounted with ormolu," lot number 26. Both of these cabinets were in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum; one was sold at Christie's New York, April 26, 1990, lot 170, $770,000 (Ronald Freyberger, "Princes, Provenance, Royal Furniture and a Hardstone Cabinet," Christie's Review of the Season 1990, pp. 238-41) and is now in the Gerstenfeld Collection, New York (Fig 2) (Edward Lennox-Boyd, ed. Masterpieces of English Furniture: The Gerstenfeld Collection. London, 1998, pp. 148-61), (fig. 2) the other on loan to The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

The present cabinet-on-stand was lot 12, and was fully described in the catalogue as: "A Rare & Curious Mosaic Dejeune Service, consisting of tea and coffee pots, sugar and tea vases with covers, cream ewer and 2 cups and saucers. Gilt inside. The Mosaics representing landscapes, birds, vases, butterflies, tripods and arabesque borders, fitted in a noble and sumptuous cassette formed of ebony, with panels of black marble inlaid with lapis lazuli, on which are represented in bold alto relievo à brod, grapes, fruit and flowers of various descriptions in Oriental agates, amethysts, opals and other stones, with massive chased ormolu shell and scroll mountings and borders, and 4 Caryatide figures at the corners, the inside and tray lined with rich crimson silk velvet, resting on a Magnificent Ebony and lapis lazuli Stand, ormolu fluting with foliage corners; on the side 4 bold Bacchanalian masques with cornucopias and festoons of flowers, the whole supported by 4 massive solid ormolu lion-head chimera legs (4 feet in height). This splendid work of art is worthy of a prominent situation in a connoisseur's cabinet of taste and vertu."

It was purchased at the sale for the sum of 400 guineas by the 2nd Earl of Normanton, and it is shown in a picture Gallery at Somerley painted in 1866 by James Digman Wingfield (fl. 1838-1872) and Joseph Rubens Powell (fl. 1835-1871).

A backgammon table with an identical base with husk-stopped fluted edge is known (sold Sotheby's London, December 10, 1993, lot 326, £83,000).

It is also worth mentioning a pair of cabinets very much in the same spirit as the present chest-on-stand, the San Francisco consoles, and the Brooklyn/Metropolitan/Gerstenfeld cabinets. Made in Paris incorporating late 17th-century French pietre dure plaques, this pair of cabinets were commissioned by George Watson Taylor's contemporary, William Beckford (1760-1844) in 1825 after the sale at Fonthill Abbey (Fig 3) (William Beckford, 1760-1844: An Eye for the Magnificent. Ex. cat. The Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, New York/The Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, 2001-2002, no. 160, pp. 413).

THE RARE AND CURIOUS MOSAIC DéJEUNé SERVICE This superb part service is a product of the Konigliche Porzellanmanifaktur (Royal Berlin Porcelain Factory) in Berlin, bearing the blue scepter mark and the overglaze blue stroke which was used only between 1803 and 1813. Porcelains decorated en mosaique were considered to be representative of the highest standard of work of the Berlin factory, and were frequently exhibited in the biannual exhibitions held in Berlin's Royal Academy of Visual Arts and Mechanical Sciences, which also contained paintings and sculpture. A number of artists employed by the factory are recorded as producing decoration of this form including Maywal, who was the Malereidekorationsvorgesetzte, or Chief of Painted Decoration, who exhibited this form of decoration at the Academy five times between 1802 and 1812. Four other artists named Randow, Christenfeld, Rhotig and Dumoulin each exhibited this form once in the same period. Apart from the birds and butterflies, the other decoration is taken from the antique, the uniqueness of the service being enhanced by the use of the extremely rare matte black background, and the Pompeian red ground enriched with designs in silver similarly after the antique. Unfortunately, although one might speculate that the decoration is by Maywald, who was also possibly the originator of this form, the records of the factory have been lost since the war, allowing an attribution only to be made. Similarly, it is not impossible to speculate as far as for whom the service was originally made although its supreme and lavish quality implies that it was originally destined for someone of extreme importance.

A similar Berlin teapot with micromosaic panels depicting birds and flowers is in the Belvedere at Schloss Charlottenurg, Berlin (Köllmann and Jarchow, op. cit., Vol. I, p. 167, fig. 99).

ROBERT HUME Unfortunately, little is known at present concerning the career of Robert Hume. He is recorded as a carver, gilder and cabinetmaker in London between 1808-1840 at various addresses. These include 11 Crown Street, St. Giles in 1808, 34 Great Titchfield Street, Cavendish Square in 1809-1811, 4 Great Portland Street in 1820, and 65 Berners Street in 1837. He was probably associated with the firm Hume & Son, recorded in London as carvers, gilders and cabinetmakers at 53 Wigmore Street in 1820 and 56 Berners Street in 1829. This firm carried out work at Charlecote Park for George Hammond Lucy, supplying pictures and carved giltwood frames, and carrying out repairs and gilding. Their account for 1829-1832 amounted to £100, and for 1836 £126 16s 6d.

The extent of Hume's activities as a cabinetmaker and also as an agent with important aristocratic and wealthy patrons is clearly shown in the contemporary accounts of the Watson Taylor sale. The Gentleman's Magazine published in August 1832, reported on page 162 that "The furniture was of the most gorgeous description...A beautiful pair of console tables mounted in massive ormolu, inlaid with precious stones, and representing fruit, foliage, and birds of various colours, were valued at 2000 guineas, but were bought at the sale for 580 guineas, by Mr. Hume the dealer from whom they were originally procured...at each side of the door communicating with the two drawing rooms stood a pair of magnificent ebony cabinets...they were bought also by Mr. Hume at 475 guineas (as agent for the Duke of Hamilton).

Another report on the Devizes and Wiltshire Gazette, July 26, 1832, page 3 stated that "In offering the magnificent Console Tables, the auctioneer said it was impossible to do justice by words to great beauty and splendour; they were worthy of a place in Windsor Castle, and would hand down the name of the maker (Mr. Hume) in posterity. Mr. Hume (who was present) said he should consider himself fortunate, if they were not the means of consigning him to a workhouse. It was then mentioned, that the manufacture of these tables cost £2,000 for which not a single farthing had been paid. Then (said a gentleman present) I hope there is not a single person throughout the whole of this company that will bid two guineas for the tables above Mr. Hume...after a few biddings, the tables were knocked down for 580 guineas to Mr. Hume.

Hume is also recorded as supplying another cabinet conceived in the same manner as those at Erlestock to the Duke of Hamilton, which contained a hardstone-faced clock in the central door. A number of letters are in existence between Hume and the Duke relating to the commissions of the cabinet, the importation of the clock in 1820 and of lapis and agate in December 1822. Ronald Freyberger explored this connection in "The Duke of Hamilton's clock cabinet," Christie's International Magazine (June 1991), pp. 10-11.

This paucity of information regarding Hume, although indicating that he had clients of the greatest wealth and taste at that period, also possibly indicates that he was a clever entrepreneur who was able to conceive important commissions, the execution of which were left to outside workers. It is interesting to note that a fragment of a trade card for the firm of Vulliamy was used as packing behind a gilt-bronze mount of one of the cabinets formerly at Erlestoke and now in the Gerstenfeld collection. This was discovered during the recent restoration. In an article in Furniture History (1967), pp. 45-53, "The Vulliamys and France," Geoffrey de Bellaigue clearly shows from details in their account books showing the costs of production from various workers that "From a reading of these entries the first and perhaps most startling conclusion to be drawn is that many of these craftsmen were not employees of the Vulliamys working on their premises in Pall Mall, but individuals or firms largely resident in London, who were working independently on their own account." He continues "It follows, therefore, that the Vulliamys' personal contribution to the actual manufacture, as opposed to the designing of a work of art which they sold may have been small." Certainly, the known work of Hume indicates virtuosity in design, but also craftsmanship of the highest order, parallel to that of the Vulliamys. THE 2ND EARL OF NORMANTON AND SOMERLEY Built from 1792 to 1795 from designs by Samuel Wyatt for Daniel Hobson, a Manchester manufacturer, Somerley was sold by Henry Baring (1776-1848) to the 2nd Earl of Normanton, Welbore Ellis Agar in 1828. The 2nd Earl made additions in 1850 and was responsible for the collection of fine Regency and Neoclassical furniture in the house today (fig 4). The Earl's taste for Empire and Regency furniture is revealed throughout the house, and among the most notable pieces in the collection is this casket-on-stand, which stood in the center of the Entrance Hall (fig 5)
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