a gallery dealing in excellence - randall fine...

G. RANDALL FINE ART A GALLERY DEALING IN EXCELLENCE

Exceptional Antique Furniture, Paintings, Sculpture & Works of Art (American, English & French)

145 Water Street Stonington, CT USA 06378 917-562-1658 [email protected]




HOCHCHILD BUREAU BOOKCASE

A magnificent George I parcel gilt burr-walnut bureau bookcase in the manner of

Giles Grendey. The upper part has a broken classical swan-neck pediment enclosing a

giltwood heraldic foliate shield with cartouche-shaped mirrored doors below. These

open to reveal a fitted interior with gilded central cartouche door of richly marked

burred veneers, flanked by miniature drawers and folio pigeon-holes. The lower part,

of rare bombé form, has a sloping rest, opening to reveal a fitted interior with a cen-

tral mirrored cupboard and unusual curved drawers to each side. The two short draw-

ers and three graduated long drawers beneath the sloped front are richly mounted

with gilded handles and escutcheons and flanked by gilded corner mounts on the

bombé frame. The whole piece stands on ogee-shaped bracket feet and is unique in

having each element of its construction articulated by varying giltwood stringing.

England, circa 1725

Height: 99in/251cm

Width: 47in/199cn

Depth: 26in/66cm




The present bureau cabinet combines the unusual attributes of a bombé lower section,

gilt-gesso ornament and gilt-brass corner mounts. The broken pediment and cartouche

shaped framing to the mirror panel used in conjunction with elaborate rocaille gilt-

brass mounts are consistent with the output of a leading London cabinet-maker. In

particular they correlate with those found on a documented bureau cabinet from a

celebrated red japanned suite of furniture supplied by the cabinet-maker Giles

Grendey (1693-1780) to the Duke of Infantado for his castle at Lazcano, near San

Sebastian, northern Spain (see Christopher Gilbert, Pictorial Dictionary

of Marked London Furniture, 1996, p.247, pl.447) .

The cabinet was acquired from Mallett by Gerald Hochschild who then offered it at

Sotheby's London, The Hochschild Collection of Highly Important English Furniture, 1

December 1978, lot 13. The cabinet is also illustrated in Lanto Synge, Mallett's Great

English Furniture, 1991, p. 49, pl. 43. Another single door cabinet of the same form but

lacking a cartouche and finials to its pediment is also illustrated L. Synge op. cit., p. 50,

pl. 44.

PROVENANCE

Mallett

Gerald Hochschild

Sotheby's London, The Hochschild Collection of Highly

Important English Furniture, 1 December 1978, lot 13

Private American collection

a gallery dealing in excellence - randall fine...

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