CIRCA 1725

With its elegant outline, elaborately engraved mounts and rare bombe form, this bureau-cabinet is a fascinating example of grand English walnut furniture and a fine reflection of noble taste in the early 18th century. The bureau-cabinet is one of a small and distinct group, all having bombe bases with elaborate brass and gilt mounts and varying patterns of pediment and while it’s not possible to attribute them with certainty to named cabinet-makers, they appear to originate from a small number of London workshops.

These include three cabinets signed by Samuel Benett, two of which have a related form and single door, illustrated C. Gilbert, Pictorial Dictionary of Marked London Furniture 1700-1840, Leeds, 1996, pp. 106-107, figs. 113-118. A further related cabinet formerly in the collection of Gerald Hochschild, 96 Cheyne Walk, London presents a similar bombe base and elaborately engraved mounts. Attributed to Giles Grendey of Clerkenwell, it featured a broken triangular pediment and mirrored doors with serpentine borders, a pattern that is closely associated with Grendey. Sold from the collection in 1978 (Sotheby’s, London, 1 December 1978, lot 13, £33,000 including premium) it was later with the London dealer Malletts and illustrated in Lanto Synge, Great English Furniture, London, 1991, p. 49, pl. 43). Another, undoubtedly from the same workshop but with a single door to the cabinet was sold anonymously Christie’s, London, 17 November 2016, lot 120 (£62,500 including premium) and another also with a single door, formerly at Little Gidding Church, Huntingdonshire, was sold anonymously Sotheby’s, London, 5 June 2007, lot 111 (£240,000 including premium). Another was sold from the collection of Elizabeth, Lady Williams, Stable House, Dorchester (Dukes, Dorchester, 10 April 2019, lot 277, £120,000 including premium). A walnut and marquetry bureau-cabinet with a markedly architectural upper section and bombe base is inlaid with the signature of Samuel Bennett (d. 1741), cabinet-maker at The Sign of the Cabinet in Lothbury, London (Gilbert, op. cit., p. 106, pl. 114).

The Ducal coronet at the crest of the present lot indicates a ducal provenance and its existence in the Wimborne Collection may be explained by the ancestry of Lady Charlotte Guest. Lady Charlotte was a descendant of Peregrine Bertie, Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven (1686-1742) and she purposefully sought out works of art that belonged to her illustrious forbear, including the portrait of Peregrine Bertie's children offered in this sale (lot 308). The Ducal coronet would be a prominent projection of Lady Charlotte's distinguished ancestry and a useful social and political tool in the furnishing of Canford, which as recorded in Lady Charlotte's diaries, functioned as a political as well as purely domestic seat.