The paneled back with bas-relief frieze carved with insects and animals, over two roundels depicting a swan and serpent, respectively, over two open shelves flanked by scrolled supports carved with arcades and pierced quatrefoils, twice stamped 'HOLLAND & SONS' under the top front rail
46 in. (117 cm.) high; 84 in. (213.5 cm.) wide; 23³⁄₄. in. (60.3 cm.) deep

The Furness family, Cundall Manor, Yorkshire and by descent to the Collins family.
Sold Tennants Auctioneers, 12-13 November 1998, lot 739.Acquired by the Museum from H. Blairman and Sons, Ltd., 2000.
Purchase, Fletcher Fund, Gifts of J. Pierpont Morgan, Mary Ann Payne Foundation Inc., and Louise Rorimer Dushkin and James J. Rorimer, and Bequests of Irwin Untermyer, Marion E. Cohn, and Bernard Baruch, by exchange, 2000.

J. Talbert, Gothic Forms Applied to Furniture, Metal Work, and Decoration for Domestic Purposes, 1873 (illustrated).
H. Blairman & Sons, Furniture and Works of Art, London,1999, no. 12.
C. Payne, British Furniture, 1820-1920: The Luxury Market, London, 2023, p. 269 (related design illustrated).

Exposition Universelle, Paris, 1867.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art (The British Galleries).

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Lot Essay

Bruce J. Talbert remains one of the most influential English furniture designers of the Victorian era, with related designs currently preserved in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. In 1866, Talbert was hired by the celebrated firm Holland & Sons and won a silver medal with the firm at the 1867 Paris Exhibition where they exhibited both the present lot and an imposing cabinet with Shakespearean motifs. A related cabinet 'inlaid walnut wood Cabinet suited for Gothic furnishing - relieved by enameled discs and subjects in silver deposit modelled from Tennyson's Daydream' is presently in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London (CIRC.286:1, 2-1955). The design for the present lot is illustrated in his first book Gothic Forms Applied to Furniture, Metal Work, and Decoration for Domestic Purposes, 1873.