The Furniture History Society Newsletter 200 November 2015

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Lenygon & Morant: The American Connection

oday Lenygon & Morant is not a name Twell known outside the antiques trade and scholars of English furniture. Not long after their foundation in c. 1904, however, Lenygon & Morant became known as a leading ‘high-class’ firm of antique dealers, furniture makers, upholsterers and house of decorators, specialising in period-style interior décor and reproductions of historic furniture.1 At the peak of his career, the firm’s namesake and co-founder, Francis Henry Lenygon (1877–1943) (Fig. 1), was a ‘celebrated decorator’, although he is best remembered as the name under which Margaret Jourdain (1876–1951) published Furniture in England from 1660–1760 (1914) and Decoration in England from 1660 to 1700 (1914), discussed by Heather Burnet in the Fig. 1 Francis Henry Lenygon, c.1920s/1930s, Furniture History Society Newsletter Francis Henry Lenygon and Jeannette Becker 2 (November 2012). It became just a vague Lenygon Architectural Records and Papers, recollection that ‘there was an Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, F. H. Lenygon who directed the American Columbia University side of the decorating firm …’ and a commonly held belief that once Francis Drawings and Archives Department of the Lenygon started working in the USA, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library from 1910, he left the London firm entirely at Columbia University, however, reveal in the hands of former coachbuilder and closer ties between Lenygon & Morant ordnance manufacturer, Herbert Hall Inc., and its parent company in London, Mulliner (1861–1924), and salesman and Lenygon & Morant Ltd, than had been decorator, Ralph Freeman-Smith previously realised. It presents a picture of (1877–1940).3 a transatlantic company that profited from A study of the extant papers of the international ties between members of the American side of the firm, housed in the upper echelons of society during the

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interwar years. Letters and audits indicate Burlington Street, from about 1910, that Francis Lenygon retained an interest Lenygon & Morant had additional in the British firm which bore his name workshops on Newman Street, just off and that the two branches of Lenygon & Oxford Street, with a permanent Morant continued to share stock, contingent of painters, carpenters and craftsmen, profit and loss, and even upholsterers on hand. Lenygon later clients and commissions, well into the stated that, by 1914, he employed 1930s. As a result, the largest body of twenty-two interior designers and furniture, with a solid provenance to the decorators, all of whom had ‘high school London workshops, today survives in the education’ and ‘English Polytechnic USA. training’ and were ‘well-trained Born in the cathedral city of Lincoln, draftsmen’ with a good ‘technical son of an iron moulder, Lenygon was vocabulary.’4 apprenticed to an antique dealer and There are only a handful of examples of cabinetmaker in that city, before furniture and furnishings that can be completing his education in London, at firmly tied to Lenygon & Morant, the City and Guilds Institute and the although there are many ‘attributed’ Regent Street Polytechnic. Once settled in pieces on the market. Furniture made in the capital, Lenygon worked for the Art the London workshops was rarely marked Workshops Ltd. and then C. J. Charles, the and is therefore hard to identify with any antiques business of Charles Duveen certainty today. One exception is a (1871–1940), before founding his own firm George II style chair-back settee, sold by with his brother on Seaton Street, off the Sotheby’s in 2001, based upon an Hampstead Road in North London. The armchair in Lenygon’s 1909 publication brothers soon acquired a number of (Fig. 2).5 Commissioned by William investors in the form of Mulliner, Freeman-Smith, with whom Lenygon had worked at C. J. Charles, and financier Courtauld Thomson (later Baron Courtauld Courtauld-Thomson, 1865–1954). In 1908, Lenygon & Morant opened showrooms at 31 Old Burlington Street, displaying a series of period rooms furnished with a collection of antiques and reproductions, from where the firm would, for the next forty years, cater to a class of clientele that included members of the British royal family, the aristocracy Fig. 2 Lenygon & Co., chair-back settee, c.1910, mahogany and parcel-gilt, The and some of the wealthiest businessmen Leverhulme Collection, Thornton Manor, volume and industrial elites of the era. Besides the 1, Sotheby’s, London, 26–28 June 2001, lot 305. workshop and drafting room on Old By kind permission of Sotheby’s

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Hesketh Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme continued to operate the latter as an (1851–1925), in 1910, it was stamped independent concern at its New Bond ‘Made by Lenygon & Company Ltd. Street premises, until 1915, when the two Reproduction.’6 It was invoiced as, ‘a companies were amalgamated in the UK mahogany carved and gilt settee, (the New York branch already having reproduction of old model as agreed,’ and taken the Morant name in 1912). At that it has been suggested that the time, the Morant accountant, J. B. Killens, reproduction had been made and stamped was sent to New York to work for at the request of the client.7 More recently, Lenygon & Morant Inc. Over the years, two mahogany and parcel-gilt tables in Killens was just one of many office the William Kent manner, originally in the workers, interior decorators, draftsmen clubroom at the Royal Automobile Club in and craftsmen that worked and/or London, an interior the firm helped to trained at the London firm before joining decorate between about 1908 and 1911, the company’s American business. The were sold at Christie’s in 2008. A number result was a consistency in quality of of other pieces by the firm survive in the workmanship, style of design and services National Trust Collection and private provided, by both sides of the firm. stately homes.8 The accounts of the different branches Francis Lenygon first visited New York of Lenygon & Morant were likewise in 1910, to fulfil a decorating commission closely tied in these early years. The for US ambassador Whitelaw Reid American branch was largely stocked (1837–1912). He returned in 1911, and from antiques supplied by the London again in 1912, when Lenygon & Morant firm. After the Federal government passed Inc. was incorporated under the laws of the Payne-Aldrich tariff act in 1909, the the State of New York, with the support of importation of antiquities over 100 years Mulliner, Freeman-Smith, and Thomson. old were permitted to enter the USA duty Lenygon took control of the New York free. Lenygon & Morant took full branch and directed its operations in the advantage of the change in the law and USA, until his death in 1943.9 Up to at the company’s papers at Avery Library least 1919, however, Lenygon returned abound with photographs of stock sent frequently to the UK and continued to from London to New York. The Lenygon advise on British commissions. Mulliner Collection of Architectural Fragments, and Lenygon maintained a constant now at Colonial Williamsburg, is formed stream of correspondence that reveal from the remnants of historic interiors Mulliner to be, first and foremost, a which the London firm sent for sale in businessman, and Lenygon and Freeman- America or as examples to be copied and Smith, the creative partners. These letters replicated by the New York workshops also testify to the logistical and financial (Fig. 3).10 ties between the two branches. For the first few years that Lenygon & When Lenygon & Co. purchased the Morant operated on the transatlantic upholstery firm Morant & Co., in c. 1912, it market the New York branch was very

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Fig. 3 Group photograph of items from the Lenygon Collection of Architectural Fragments. Photograph by Dani Jaworski, Assistant Curator of Architectural Collections, 2015, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation

much dependant on its parent company. active transatlantic business relationship. From the time of its incorporation in 1912, After 1924, there was a hiatus in the trade until 1920, the books for Lenygon & of antiques between the two branches, Morant Inc. were in debt to the London while, for reasons still unexplained, firm. The Great War, however, forced a Lenygon & Morant Inc. purchased a large reversal of fortunes, so that it was the amount of its stock from the Bath-based American side of the firm that ensured dealer, Charles Angell Ltd, for a number Lenygon & Morant survived the political of years. The relationship between the and economic after effects of the war. In New York and London branches of 1918 and 1919, the London side of the Lenygon & Morant was restored in the business suffered severely as a result of 1930s under the directorship of Ralph the poor post-war British economy and, Freeman-Smith. Along with Lenygon, he by 1920, Lenygon & Morant Ltd was in saw to it that projects and clients debt to the New York branch for continued to be shared. Besides panelling, approximately $112,000.11 It was decided furniture and plasterwork, Lenygon & that a set of cartoons after Raphael by Sir Morant Ltd provided a large amount of James Thornhill (1675/6–1734), at that specially commissioned textiles based on time in the hands of the London firm, historic models for the New York branch would be transferred to the New York during this period. The firm owned its books, and the seven framed canvases own blocks (some from Morant) and were shipped to the USA, in lieu of this outsourced the weaving and printing of debt. Today the paintings are still in the fabrics to textile houses such as USA, in the collection of Colombia G. F. Baker. ‘As a firm we have found it University’s Miriam and Ira D. Wallach necessary to weave our own fabrics and Art Gallery. print our own linens and chintzes, and to While Mulliner was alive the two sides have them all made in colours of Lenygon & Morant maintained an unobtainable except through similar

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Fig. 4 Lenygon & Morant, Governor’s chair, c.1933–34, the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation XR1978-85. Author’s photograph, 2011. By kind permission of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation

special efforts,’ Lenygon stated in 1938, at Colonial Williamsburg Foundation on the a time when a large contingency of such furnishing of historic and newly erected material had just been supplied to buildings. For instance, Lenygon & Colonial Williamsburg.12 In fact, it is at Morant made the Governor’s chair for the Colonial Williamsburg that the largest new Capitol building. It is a turned high- body of identifiable furniture, made in the back chair with elaborately carved crest London workshops, survives. and foot rails, based on the Bishop’s Throughout much of the 1930s, armchair in St Paul’s Cathedral (Fig. 4). Lenygon & Morant worked for the The crown of William and Mary was

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substituted for the Bishop’s arms and 1 As Lenygon & Morant was described during the redecoration of 10 Downing Street in 1938. mitre, as a more appropriate historical James Roe to the Secretary to the Treasury, 3 reference for the Virginia heritage site. February 1938, Office of Works and Successors: Official Residences, 10 Downing Street Works Although the overall commission was 1931–38, WORK 12/225, National Archive, Kew. overseen and coordinated by Francis 2 Mildred Acheson, Lady Gosford, to Colonel Lenygon, the chair, like many of the Astor, October 1910, Francis Henry Lenygon and Jeannette Becker Lenygon Architectural Records furnishings for this project, was produced and Papers, c. 1910–1967 Lenygon Collection, in the London workshop and shipped to 2000.008, box 2, folder 4, Drawings and Archives, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, America. As such objects were destined Columbia University. for a museum, they were allowed to enter 3 Hector Bolitho (ed.), A Batsford Century: The the country duty free, despite being of Record of a Hundred Years of Publishing and Bookselling, 1843–1943 (London: B. T. Batsford, modern origin. 1943), note p.53. Over the course of several years, the 4 It is unclear if Lenygon was referring here to the New York business, London company, or firm supplied some forty or more pieces both. Committee on Education of the American of seat furniture for the Capitol building Institute of Decorators, Proceedings of the Round Table Discussions on Training for the Interior alone. The Colonial Williamsburg chairs Architect and Decorator (New York: American represent an important body of work that Institute of Decorators, 1939), 19. can be firmly attributed to the Lenygon & 5 Francis Lenygon, The Decoration and Furniture of English Mansions During the Seventeenth and Morant London workshops despite the Eighteenth Centuries (London: T. Werner Laurie, lack of maker’s marks. The collaboration 1909), 39. between Lenygon & Morant Ltd and 6 The Leverhulme Collection, Thornton Manor, volume 1, Sotheby’s, London, 26–28 June 2001, lot Lenygon & Morant Inc. in the execution of 305. this and similar projects in the USA, is 7 Ibid. testament to the close collaboration 8 Interiors: Style & Spirit, Christie’s, London, 13 May 2008, lots 280, 281. between the two branches right into the 9 Lenygon & Morant Inc. was officially late 1930s and Francis Lenygon’s dissolved on December 3, 1951. continued position of importance in the 10 Lenygon & Morant Inc. had premises at 16 East 60th Street and, from 1929, 1082 Madison firm’s history. Avenue, New York. eleanor sarah dew 11 Lenygon Collection, 2000.008, box 1, folder 3, Drawings and Archives, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University. This article is based on the Ph.D. thesis of 12 ‘A. I. D. Quarterly Meeting of the Board of Eleanor Sarah Dew (joint winner of the Governors,’ 10 October 1938, Lenygon Collection, 2000.008, box 2, folder 2, Drawings and Archives, CINOA Award for Outstanding Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Dissertation), made possible by the support of Columbia University. the Bard Graduate Center, New York, Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, London, and Furniture History Society’s Oliver Ford Trust and Tom Ingram Memorial Fund.

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Future Society Events

Bookings Cancellations

For places on visits please apply to the Please note that no refunds will be given Events Secretary, Anne-Marie Bannister, for cancellations for events costing £10.00 Bricket House, 90 Mount Pleasant Lane, or less. In all other cases, cancellations will Bricket Wood, St Albans, Herts, al2 3xd be accepted up to seven days before the (Tel: 07775 907390) enclosing a separate date of a visit, but refunds will be subject cheque and separate stamped addressed to a £10.00 deduction for administrative A5 envelope for each event using the costs. Please also note that in the rare enclosed booking form. Where possible, instances where members have promised joining instructions will be despatched by to pay on the day of the visit, they will e-mail so please remember to provide still be charged the full amount of the day your email address you have one. There is if cancelling less than seven days before no need to send a SAE if you provide a the visit or if they simply fail to attend. clearly written email address. This is necessary as the Society has Applications should only be made by normally paid in advance for a certain members who intend to take part in the number of members to take part in e.g. whole programme. No one can apply for tour/lunch. Separate arrangements are more than one place unless they hold a made for study weekends and foreign joint membership, and each applicant tours and terms are clearly stated on the should be identified by name. If you wish printed details in each case to be placed on the waiting list, please enclose a telephone number and email address where you can be reached. Please note that a closing date for applications for all visits is printed in the Newsletter. Applications made after the closing date will be accepted only if space is still available. Members are reminded that places are not allocated on a first come, first served basis, but that all applications are equally considered following the closing date for applications. Please use the blue form for booking events, or email [email protected]

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Research Seminar on 11.45–12.10 Jean-Baptiste Corne (École du Louvre) European Furniture for Georges Jacob and the Rousseau Brothers: Sir Nicholas Goodison in Enlightenment of a brief cooperation 12.10–12.35 Annemarie Klootwijk Celebration of 25 Years as (Duivenvoorde Castle, The Netherlands) A set of rococo trumeaus at Duivenvoorde President of the Society Castle the wallace collection, hertford 12.35–13.00 Discussion house, manchester square, 13.00–14.00 Lunch (not included in ticket london w1 price) 14.00–14.25 Julie Godin (Université de friday 20 november 2015, Nantes) 10.00 am – 5.00 pm Regency furniture at Chatsworth: from classical Following the success of its two previous revival to chinoiserie FHS Research Seminars, held in London 14.25–14.50 Christiane Ernek-van der Goes in 2012 and in New York in 2014, the (Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden) Society is delighted to announce that a Johann August Türpe: rebel, entrepreneur and third Research Seminar will take place, court cabinetmaker once again hosted by the Wallace 14.50–15.15 Tea Collection, on 20 November 2015. This 15.15–15.40 Thomas Deshayes (Cultural year, the Seminar will be held in honour Property section, Ministry of Defence, of Sir Nicholas Goodison, in celebration of Paris) his 25 years as President of the Society. Léopold Double: a French Lord Hertford? Ten speakers – all at an early stage of 15.40–16.05 Caroline McCaffrey (Chitra their career – will present short papers on Collection, London) their current research, with papers The influence of French art and design on the encompassing a broad chronological and furniture of Robert Lorimer geographical representation of European 16.05–16.30 Benjamin Zurstrassen (Musée furniture history. Horta, Brussels) Henry van de Velde’s furniture: between 10.00–10.20 Registration and coffee making and thinking 10.20–10.30 Welcome 10.30–10.55 Ada de Wit (Radboud University, 16.30–16.50 Discussion Nijmegen / The Wallace Collection) 16.50–17.00 Concluding remarks Anglo-Dutch relationships in seventeenth- century wood carving Tickets are priced at £15 (£5 for student 10.55–11.20 Olivia Fryman (Historic Royal concessions) and are available from the Palaces) Grants Secretary, Joanna Norman, email A leather chest of drawers from the household of [email protected] or Queen Anne 11.20–11.45 Esther van der Hoorn tel: 07790 669240 (Rijksmuseum) Patterns of production, invention and taste in a The FHS Research Seminar is generously late seventeenth-century design for a chaise à supported by the Oliver Ford Trust and the porteurs in the Rijksmuseum Wallace Collection.

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Annual General Meeting and Fashion Department at the V&A will talk about the Napoleonic Medal Cabinet and Works in Progress which was recently acquired by the Talks Museum with financial help from the Society. the east india club, 16 st james’s Admission to the AGM is free but all square, london sw1 members wishing to attend should notify the Events Secretary at least 7 days in saturday 21 november 2015, advance. Tickets for a sandwich lunch 11.00 am – 1.00 pm with a glass of wine at the price of £15 per The Annual General Meeting for the year head should be booked with the Events ending 30 June 2015 will be held at the Secretary at least 7 days in advance. East India Club. The AGM will start at 11.00 am (coffee from 10.30 am). Three talks will follow the business of Study Weekend to the day: David Dewing, Director of the Shropshire Geffrye Museum will speak about future developments there; Laura Houliston of friday 11 – sunday 13 march 2016 English Heritage and FHS Council The Society is planning an early March member will speak about the study weekend in Shropshire, to be co-led re-structuring of English Heritage; and by Gareth Williams, Curator and Head of Leela Meinertas of the Furniture, Textiles Learning to the Weston Park Foundation

Peter Tillemans, view of Combermere Abbey, 1730

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and Kate Dyson. We will be staying in the Annual Symposium extremely well appointed guest houses of Combermere Abbey. The grade I the wallace collection, scheduled Abbey was built in 1130 as a manchester square, london w1 Cistercian Monastery. In later life it saturday 16 april 2016 became a private home. Its current owner is in the midst of a major restoration The Symposium in 2016 is scheduled to programme involving the Georgian wing. take place slightly later than usual. The Visits are planned to a fine group of subject will be Colour in Interiors. It will country houses in the area including include papers on painted furniture and Weston Park. panelling in the sixteenth and seventeenth Please register your interest via the centuries, on the importance of dye Events Secretary. Details will be sent out technology to the Gobelins Tapestry as soon as the programme has been workshops, and on colour in Riesener finalised. marquetry, as well as discussions of colour in particular interiors. The programme is

Fragment of a wall-hanging, Hertfordshire, still in development and will be published c.1600, W. 41–1952. © Victoria and Albert in full in the February Newsletter and on Museum the Society website.

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Occasional Visits

Goldsmiths’ Hall, Foster The World of Charles and Lane, London ec2v 6bn Ray Eames, Barbican

monday 9 november 2015, Centre, Silk Street, 5.00 pm – 7.00 pm London ec2y 8ds This visit was advertised in the August thursday 14 january 2016, 2015 edition of the Newsletter. At the time 9.00 am – 10.00 am (with free time of going to press places are still available. to look around afterwards) Please contact the Events Secretary for details. Charles and Ray Eames are among the cost: £25 limit: 20 members most important designers of the twentieth century. Their enduring influence is widely acknowledged and continues to be celebrated worldwide. The World of Charles Charles and Ray Eames and Ray Eames is a major new exhibition

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surveying the careers of Charles Europe 1600–1815 (1907–1978) and Ray (1912–1988) Eames and the extraordinary work of the Eames Galleries, Victoria & Office: a ‘laboratory’, active for over four Albert Museum, decades, where the Eameses and their collaborators and staff produced an array Cromwell Road, London of pioneering and influential work – from sw7 2rl architecture, furniture, graphic and product design, to painting, drawing, wednesday 2 march 2016, 8.45 am – film, sculpture, photography, multi-media 10.00 am installation and exhibitions, as well as new models for education. Members will The V&A’s Europe 1600–1815 galleries enjoy a private visit before opening time will open to the public in December 2015, co-led by Christopher Wilk, Keeper of the following the transformation of seven Furniture, Textiles & Fashion department galleries for the redisplay of the at the V&A and Lotte Johnson, Assistant Museum’s unrivalled collection of Curator at the Barbican Art Gallery. seventeenth- and eighteenth-century European art and design. Europe cost: £20 limit: 20 members 1600–1815 will be home to some of the closing date for applications: most magnificent works held by the V&A, friday 18 december 2015 many of which were made in Europe by its finest artists and craftsmen for the Blythe House, 23 Blythe period’s most discerning leaders of taste such as Louis XIV, Marie Antoinette, Road, London w14 0qx Catherine the Great and Napoleon. The displays will demonstrate how France thursday 25 february 2016, succeeded Italy as the undisputed leader 2.00 pm for 2.15 pm start – 4.15 pm of fashionable art and design in Europe in This year our visit to the V&A Study the second half of the seventeenth century Collections at Blythe House will and will include some of the V&A’s most concentrate on items with historic exceptional examples of continental upholstery. We are delighted that Frances furniture of the period. Members will Collard will be joining V&A curators to enjoy a private visit before opening time, lead this visit. led by Lesley Miller, lead curator for the cost: £25 limit: 20 members Europe 1600–1815 Galleries, and Leela Meinertas, senior curator in the Furniture, closing date for applications: Textiles & Fashion department. friday 29 january 2016 cost: £25 limit: 20 members

closing date for applications: friday 5 february 2016

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Overseas Event

Palacio de Cibeles, Madrid

Madrid topic of this overseas event, are being planned, as well as an informal gathering June 2016 (exact dates to be with short presentations by scholars confirmed) whose research ties in with the subject. Work on this trip is in progress. The last FHS trip to Madrid, organised Members may register their interest with about ten years ago, offered members a the Events Secretary and information will broad overview of the major furniture be sent out when available. collections in and around the city and an The FHS Grants Committee now meet opportunity to meet with Spanish quarterly to consider all grant furniture scholars. The focus of a new applications, either for independent study tour to this city, being planned travel/incidental expenses for the for early summer of 2016, will be purpose of study or research, or for eighteenth-century furniture, interiors and participation in FHS foreign and UK collecting. Participants will be able to see study trips. Please contact Jo Norman at royal palaces and museum collections in [email protected] for the company of the curators in charge and further information and grant application access some private collections. A number forms. of guided visits, tailored specifically to the

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FHS Notices

Furniture History Tefaf Fair

1978–2012: Sale of For the past few years, the Grants Selected Back Numbers Committee of the FHS has organised a study tour to the TEFAF art fair in In order to reduce storage costs, the Maastricht with the sponsorship of the Society is offering for sale some back Oliver Ford Trust. We invite applications volumes of Furniture History at a specially to attend the visit from UK- based reduced price of £9.25 (inc. p&p) to UK curators of furniture collections at an early addresses, £9.85 (inc. p&p) to European stage of their career. Applications should addresses and £15.35 (inc. p&p) to be sent to Jo Norman, Grants Secretary at non-European addresses. [email protected] by This offer applies until 31 December 30 November 2015. Applications should 2015 for the following editions of include a CV, one reference letter and a Furniture History: letter explaining how they see the trip as XIV (1978), XV (1979), XVII (1981), benefiting them. XVIII (1982), XXV (1989) – XLII (2006), XLIV (2008) – XLVIII (2012) Elizabeth Jamieson A full list of articles published in these editions can be found on the website: The Society is indebted to Elizabeth www.furniturehistorysociety.org/journals Jamieson for her twelve years of Please send your remittance, made committed and efficient voluntary work payable to the Furniture History Society, and service on the Activities Committee, together with the numbers (or dates) of as Council member, and finally as Hon. the volumes you wish to purchase to the Newsletter Editor since 2011; this being new Publications Officer, Jill Bace, the final publication for which she is 21 Keats Grove, Hampstead, London Editor. nw3 2rs. Alternatively you can e-mail your order to her at publications@ furniturehistorysociety.org and she will send you an invoice. Orders will be despatched by Oblong (the Society’s printers) upon receipt of payment.

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Other Notices

lease note that the following are not Porganised by the Furniture History Society. Information/booking instructions can be found under individual items.

Exhibition: Made in the Americas: The New World Discovers Asia

continuing until 15 february 2016, museum of fine arts boston, usa C. Charles shop at 27–29 New Bond Street, Made in the Americas is the first large-scale, c. 1903 pan-American exhibition to examine the profound influence of Asia on the arts of the colonial Americas. Featuring nearly Conference: Antique 100 of the most extraordinary objects Dealers – The British produced in the colonies, this exhibition explores the rich, complex story of how Antiques Trade in the craftsmen throughout the hemisphere Twentieth Century, A adapted Asian styles in a range of Cultural Geography materials – from furniture to silverwork, textiles, ceramics, and painting. Exquisite 14–15 april 2016, temple newsam objects from Mexico City, Lima, Quito, house, leeds Quebec City, Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, dating from the seventeenth Advance notice that the end of project to the early nineteenth centuries, include conference will take place at Temple blue-and-white talavera ceramics copied Newsam House, Leeds, on Thursday 14 from imported Chinese porcelains, and Friday 15 April 2016. More elaborately decorated furniture inspired information and booking details will soon by imported Japanese lacquer, and be on the project website at luxuriously woven textiles made to www.antiquedealers.leeds.ac.uk replicate fine silks and cottons imported from China and India.

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Book Reviews

uggestions for future reviews and Director. Further expansion included the Spublishers’ review copies should be appointment of a London agent with a sent to Simon Swynfen Jervis, West End showroom in 1892, the 45 Bedford Gardens, London w8 7ef, establishment of a New York office in 1903 tel: 020 7727 8739, email: and a display at the St Louis Exhibition in [email protected] 1904. Demand for novelty in furnishing fabrics appears to have influenced the introduction of shadow effect tissues Philip A. Sykas, The Beauty of Experiment which were available in several London Shadow Tissues at Turnbull & Stockdale and Manchester department stores by (Isle of Man: Turnbull & Stockdale, 2013) 1914, including Shoolbreds, Liberty & Co., 96pp., 88 col. illus, 37 b.&w. illus. and Kendal Milne & Co. isbn 978-1-905476-87-9, £15.95 UK, £19.95 The rapid rise of house building after overseas, available through Manchester the First World War stimulated the market Metropolitan University on line shop for soft furnishings. Even a modest house buyonline.mmu.ac.uk of five rooms required twenty-nine yards This scholarly account of a particularly of fabric for window curtains, as rich period of textile design and illustrated by The Cabinet Maker in 1924, production describes the development of and matching loose covers, door curtains, a warp printed cotton fabric with a cushions and floor hassocks all offered shadow effect, designed for upholstery greater opportunities for textile and soft furnishings. The firm of Turnbull manufacturers. Popular patterns, using & Stockdale, founded in Bury in 1882 by strong colours, included Jacobean designs, William Turnbull and William Stockdale, inspired by seventeenth-century specialised in machine printed cottons crewelwork, and naturalistic florals, both and rapidly expanded to include a range suitable for production as shadow tissues of printed furnishing fabrics including which could also be given signs of velveteens (cotton velvets) and cretonnes artificial ageing, appropriate for use in (cotton or cotton and linen). Turnbull’s fashionable interiors furnished with interest in developing machine printed antiques or reproduction pieces. The textiles as an artistic alternative to introduction of geometric backgrounds for handcraft methods and the resulting floral patterns and reversible patterns, fabrics were praised by Lewis F. Day in suitable for unlined curtains, were further 1887 although he criticised the innovations of shadow tissue manufacture dependence on Japanese inspired designs. before their decline in popularity in the He subsequently joined the firm as Art late 1930s.

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Philip Sykas has assembled a attractive publication include textile fascinating range of detailed and technical samples, trade advertisements, information about the production and contemporary photographs of interiors, popularity of this particular type of details of prices and sales, and a table furnishing fabric, much of which is based identifying the contributions of Day and on his research in the archives of Turnbull other principal designers. and Stockdale. The illustrations in this frances collard

Offer to FHS Members

appropriate for the rapidly expanding cities and shaped by liberal ideals. As their broad appeal weakened with the new century, they adapted and became more conventional. Using a wide range of sources, the book studies the patrons and the publics, the collecting policies, the temporary exhibitions, and the architecture of these institutions, as well as the complex range of reasons for their foundation.

Special offer to FHS Members: £35.00 (RRP £45.00) including free postage and packing within the UK. Members who wish to take up this offer should contact the Sales Department of Yale University Giles Waterfield, The People’s Galleries: Press London on 020 7079 4900. Art Museums and Exhibitions in Britain 1800–1914 (Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art: Yale University Press, 2015).

The People’s Galleries traces the rise of art museums in Britain through World War I, focusing on the phenomenon of municipal galleries. This richly illustrated book argues that these regional museums represented a new type of institution: an art gallery for a working-class audience,

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Reports on the Society’s Events

A Note on Reports ireland: crossroads of art and design 1690 to 1840 The Society is extremely grateful to all The exhibition was the first ever those members who write reports on our exhibition of Irish decorative arts in the activities. We know that members who USA and celebrated the full range of cannot attend particular events greatly craftsmanship in Ireland with furniture, value these accounts and it is clear that paintings, drawings, ceramics, musical both the information passed on during instruments, silver, glass and visits and the accounts of them are of bookbinding. Its set of ten room displays great benefit to owners, who frequently opened with Irish elk’s antlers measuring say that they have learned from our visit. 10 feet across, and nearby was an Irish The reports provide an archive of the portable harp by John Egan circa 1820. Society’s activities which is an extremely Amongst the silver was a cup and cover useful record. Members are asked to with an orb finial which recorded the provide reports as soon as possible after career of John Bowes, Lord Chancellor of events, to help our visit leaders and Ireland during the reign of George II, an Newsletter Editors, who need time to outstanding centrepiece supplied by the prepare these for publication. London goldsmith George Wickes for Joseph Leeson, Earl of Milltown. Other spectacular silver made in Dublin and Cork and imported from London demonstrated sophisticated dining habits and celebrated spectacular sporting wins. A cistern by Thomas Sutton from the Earls of Kildare stood out in the context of Irish mahogany furniture. There was a remarkable brass and silvered hunt table attributed to Samuel Mason, Dublin, 1785. The idiosyncratic nature of the brass furniture mounts on the desk and bookcase acquired in the 1920s for Governor’s House, Colonial Williamsburg, supported the suggestion that these were made in Dublin but more research is needed. One of the secretary

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desks from the Art Institute’s collection, frame attributed to John Houghton, inlaid with marquetry, was signed by the surrounding a woven portrait of cabinet-maker John Kirkhoffer, the son of George II. a refugee from the Palatinate who had Christopher Monkhouse (with the settled in Dublin. A series of Irish assistance of Leslie Fitzpatrick) led the mahogany tables for tea and gaming or tour through two generous mornings at for console or sideboard use were the Art Institute. In addition, Ghenete dominated by one with a central lion Zelleke, FHS member and Samuel and mask with tongue sticking out, a reminder M. Patricia Grober Curator of European that eccentric carved details have long Decorative Arts, walked us through the been associated with Irish furniture. European decorative arts galleries and A display of eighteen mezzotint life-size showed us the stores. portrait heads (1759–61) by Thomas Frye, hung together in their original pressed paper frames, was a striking tribute to this talented Irish artist. A group of artists’ portraits of their own family members included a delightful watercolour by Adam Buck, with his wife and children, 1813, with the artist’s right hand supported on a decorated sabre-legged chair complete with buttoned cushion. A section on the Library included examples of the quality achieved by bookbinders who supplied volumes exquisitely tooled with unique feather patterns. The musical instruments included the inlaid case of the neat piano circa 1780 attributed to William Moore of Dublin that demonstrated that this new upright form of the familiar keyboard instrument was invented in Ireland. A pochette (dancing master’s kit) by Thomas Perry and a sophisticated cither viol made by Perry in partnership with Wilkinson with its flame-shaped sound holes reminded us that Thomas Perry was connected to the celebrated violin maker Claude Pire who worked in Paris. The strong tradition of carved-gilt looking glass frames was evidenced by a spectacular, partly gilt

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public collections low-ceilinged corridor led to the high-ceilinged playroom. There was more The Richard Driehaus Museum is located built-in furniture in the studio, where the in the former Nickerson house, one of the library had a series of rotating octagons rare survivors of Chicago’s gilded age. spiralling upwards towards the light. We Although it ceased to be a home in 1919, also saw his other local masterpiece the original furniture by Herter Brothers and Unity Temple. Afterwards we had lunch George Schastey (usually in the at the nearby John Toomey Gallery before Renaissance Revival style) survives along an upcoming auction, which included a with panelling of ebonised cherrywood number of Stickley pieces. and the stained glass dome and skylights. As a break from the past, we were There was a special exhibition of art hosted at the design studio of Suzanne nouveau jewellery. Lovell, Inc. who, with her team, design The Glessner House, the last work by interiors all over the United States. They H. H. Richardson is a tribute to the reflect her ‘couture’ design approach Glessners’ admiration for the English Arts involving architecture, the decorative and Crafts and Aesthetic movements. arts and art history, combining both Much of the furniture was designed by ‘memory-rich’ pieces and contemporary Charles Coolidge and Francis Bacon (who painting and crafts. worked for A. H. Davenport) and the We are immensely grateful to all our Chicagoan Isaac Scott who had a long hosts for generously allowing us to visit relationship with the family. We were their collections and for sharing their taken round by the Director, William Tyre, knowledge with the group. who also showed the group the nearby david wurtzel (organiser), Second Presbyterian Church, one of the david and tessa murdoch, most intact religious arts and crafts simon swynfen and fionnuala interiors in the country and largely jervis, mary ellen johnson, 1901 unchanged since . It is noted for its robert wilson, soodie beasley, stained glass windows by Tiffany, William robin miller, stephen o’connell, Fir-Kline and Burne-Jones. The architect sara orme, and david walker was Howard Van Doren Shaw, a pioneer of the American Craftsman movement. In Oak Park we saw the home and Renishaw Hall, Tuesday studio of Frank Lloyd Wright, where he 16 June 2015 lived and worked until 1909. Both provide keys to his later style as well: fitted Eighteen members arrived at Renishaw furniture with window seats ‘dissolving Hall on a late spring day to be greeted by the walls’, the famous dining table and Kate Dyson who introduced the group to high-backed chairs creating a ‘room Christine Beevers, the archivist at within a room’, and the use of Renishaw and our guide for the day. A compression and expansion, as a general tour of the house in the morning

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was followed after lunch by a more between 1640 and 1660. Inside were nine detailed inspection of the furniture. Little unpainted drawer panels with an research has been undertaken regarding interesting message on the central drawer the furniture and Christine Beevers panel, translated from the German by a emphasised that Alexandra Hayward, the member as: ‘You can be the painter of owner of Renishaw, would welcome any your own art’. The feature that identified advice members could give over the this as an Eger cabinet was the provenance and history of the furniture. It three-dimensional marquetry, carved in was not long into the tour before we were low-relief, on the internal drawers. all swayed by our tour guide’s infectious Moving through to what was the Great enthusiasm for the furniture and contents Parlour in 1625, we were confronted by an of Renishaw. impressive library and family sitting Renishaw, originally a 1627 manor room, containing the oldest piece of house, was built on the back of the iron furniture in the house. This was a fine and coal trade in nearby Sheffield and example of a seventeenth-century country extensively improved by Sir Sitwell oak bobbin chair. The Regency drawing Sitwell with the addition of large Regency room, some 60 feet in length, was rooms built either side of the 1627 house designed in 1803 mainly for the tapestries between the years 1793–1808. On entering purchased on the Grand Tour. Much the hall, a collection of watercolours and attention was given to several major pencil drawings from the archive were pieces of furniture. The most important of shown to us, revealing the transformation these was Thomas Chippendale’s inlaid of the house and gardens from 1776 to the and ornamented commode, not dissimilar 1830s. in design to his commode at Harewood Renishaw has had a chequered history House, Yorkshire. Several FHS members regarding its furniture, the nadir being the had made the journey specifically to see sale of most of the contents at the auctions this piece at close quarters, especially as between 1849 and 1870. From 1880, Sir its provenance is now known. The cabinet George Sitwell refurbished the house, was made for Melbourne House, satisfying his penchant for German and Piccadilly (now the Albany), which was Italian Baroque furniture by purchasing one of William Chambers’s most eighteen such cabinets all to be found on important commissions. For full details the ground floor. see Christopher Gilbert, Life and Work of The entrance hall consisted of an Thomas Chippendale (1978), pp.260–64, and eclectic mix of furniture and paintings, especially Joe Friedman, ‘New Light on from a 1667 oak cradle to a series of John the Renishaw Commode’, Furniture Piper paintings which are part of a History, vol. 33 (1997), pp.143–49. There collection of about 70, started by Sir was a debate as to why and when a glass Osbert Sitwell. Of particular note was an plate had been inserted into the central ebony cabinet most likely to have been panel on top of the commode. The top made in the town of Eger (now Cheb, CZ) rectangular glass panel is not original, but

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FHS members glimpsed a smaller oval Rosa, originally from Raynham Hall, glass plate underneath it, which could Norfolk. There was some debate as to possible be the original one. Another whether the frame was wholly Kentian in commode attributed to Chippendale was period, Kentian with some additions, or also examined. Although the ormolu was Regency. No conclusions were made. comparable to the work of Matthew In the ante dining room, the four Boulton of Birmingham, there is evidence walnut chairs around the English table that the Chippendale workshops c. 1710, were considered to be provincial manufactured ormolu for their own Italian but with English attributes. These furniture. It is closely related to were probably inspired by English documented furniture at Harewood. furniture and intended to look English. Overall it was considered that this The dining room is again well commode was most likely to have been proportioned. The Regency mahogany made by Chippendale. Some FHS dining table is surrounded by fourteen members remarked that the ormolu on chairs, eight of which are circa 1770s, the both cabinets was closely related. Sir remainder being excellent copies by Osbert Sitwell bought the commode with G. Bird, c. 1960, and later by Julian Stanley a provenance stating it was believed to of High Wycombe. Interest was shown have been from Fonthill House, Wiltshire. over the console table used as a side board There is a very similar commode in the classical apse. There were divergent belonging to Manchester City Art views as to the provenance. This piece of Galleries. This is housed at Heaton Hall, furniture, along with some others in the Manchester. Much interest was shown house, was repurchased later in the over a table, probably by Linnell, but the nineteenth century, following the major design was too generic for certainty. auction sale in 1849. There was a debate Notably it had a vertical ‘hidden drawer’, about the original nature of the piece, which retained its secrets as the key could which certainly fitted well into the curved not be found. The Augsburg ebony wall. Members speculated that it could cabinet was an impressive example of the have been made up, originating possibly Baroque furniture purchased by Sir before 1849. Its size prompted the George Sitwell. suggestion that it might have been The Regency ballroom was the last constructed for a large public interior major addition by Sir Sitwell Sitwell in before being modified for its present 1808. Being again 60 feet in length, it is home. well proportioned in particular to display After the tour of the house, members a pair of Italian commodes made in 1793 were invited to walk the impressive and and two Flemish cabinets of about 1680. sunny gardens, initially designed by Sir One of the commodes is dated 1793. George Sitwell in the 50 years from 1886, Dominating the end wall, is a magnificent before completing a very interesting and gilt frame in the style of William Kent memorable day with tea in the old stables. encompassing a painting by Salvator jeremy ackroyd

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Firle Place, Monday fine set of ‘Chinese Chippendale’ chairs, with interesting construction details in the 7 September 2015 upper corners of the back. The Little Hall was furnished with green Gothick stools, Furniture History Society members were originally from the dairy, supplied by welcomed to Firle Place by Deborah Gage, Gillow in the 1790s, and a side table of Curator of the Collections of Firle, and about 1740, most likely originally from cousin of the 8th Viscount Gage, who with Arlington Street, which had recently been his son Henry also hosted the tour. We stripped of its white paint, as part of a started in the Great Hall, where Deborah student conservation project, to reveal Gage outlined the history of Firle Place original 18th century matt and burnished and the Gage Family. Firle is indeed a gilding. magnificent repository of collections from It is on the upper floor that the a number of different sources, including ‘blockbusters’ are found. The Upper Fawsley Hall (Northants), Panshanger Drawing Room includes a pair of pier (Hertfordshire) and Taplow Court tables of the 1790s by Gillow, copying the (Buckinghamshire), as well as the Gages’ latest fashions in France, and a very town house in Arlington Street. Many of important pair of marquetry cabinets by the star items, including the Van Dyck Chippendale from Melbourne House in (1634), were inherited in 1952 by Imogen, London. The main veneer is now thought wife of the 6th Viscount, who was a to be holly rather than satinwood, and the Grenfell and whose ancestors included the upper section of the cabinets may have Cowpers and the Melbournes. In addition, originally served to display porcelain, if Firle is associated with General Thomas not books. The Long Gallery includes two Gage, who played a crucial role in the important Zoffany portraits of the 3rd Earl earlier stages of the American War of Cowper and his wife, and the Melbourne Independence and whose dispatch box for Service (1771), one of the best documented the year 1768 is displayed in the great hall, purchases from the Sèvres manufactory next to his full-length portrait. Items in the by a foreign customer. The furniture Great Hall also included a pair of late includes a bureau mazarin that generated seventeenth-century Beauvais tapestries much speculation as to whether or not it with Commedia dell’ Arte figures, a pair was North Italian (Ladatte?) and a of roughly contemporary French (or nineteenth-century bureau plat with Swedish?) torchères, and two fine English Boulle work dating from about 1700 chests of about 1740, probably from applied to it. There were also some very Panshanger or Taplow. interesting eighteenth-century gilt chairs The Ground Floor Drawing Room from Florence, where the 3rd Earl Cowper included a set of fox side tables, similar to spent some thirty years, but perhaps the those at Stourhead, and thought to have most important pieces were a pair of come from Arlington Street but not as yet signed and dated commodes by Pierre traceable in the archives, as well as a very Daneau (1733). The signature is hidden

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behind the drawers and is an extremely Deborah Gage for her unparalleled rare example of signed and dated French knowledge of the collections and to both furniture before the introduction of the Lord Gage and his son Henry, for their compulsory stamp in 1743. After lunch, kindness and hospitality. the visit concluded with a lively james yorke discussion about the origins of a seventeenth-century ebony cabinet in the Victorian Ante Room, with attributed origins ranging from Antwerp to Spain. So ended an enjoyable and successful trip. The society is most grateful to The Oliver Ford Trust and the Tom Ingram Memorial Fund

The Tom Ingram Memorial Fund makes In line with one of its roles – the grants towards travel and other incidental promotion of interior design – the Oliver expenses for the purpose of study or Ford Trust most generously sponsors research into the history of furniture (a) students or junior museum professionals whether or not the applicant is a member to develop their knowledge of furniture of the Society; (b) only when the study or and interiors. This year, as well as research is likely to be of importance in supporting the Research Seminar at the furthering the objectives of the Society; Wallace Collection, the Oliver Ford Trust is sponsoring the study trip for curators to and (c) only when travel could not be attend TEFAF at Maastricht as described undertaken without a grant from the above on page 14. Society. Applications towards the cost of The FHS Grants Committee now meet FHS foreign and domestic tours and study quarterly to consider all grant weekends are particularly welcome from applications, either for independent scholars. Successful applicants are travel/incidental expenses for the required to acknowledge the assistance of purpose of study of study or research, or the Fund in any resulting publication and for participation in FHS foreign and UK must report back to the FHS Grants study trips. Application forms can be Committee on completion of the travel downloaded from the FHS website. or project. All enquiries about grant Applications for the next meeting of the applications should be addressed to Grants Committee should be sent to the Jo Norman at Grants Secretary, with a current grants@furniturehistorysociety. org. Curriculum Vitae, by 5 December 2015.

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Officers and Council Members council members: Rufus Bird, Yannick Chastang, Max Donnelly, Laura Houliston, Helen Jacobsen, president: Sir Nicholas Goodison Annabel Westman chairman of the council: Christopher Rowell honorary newsletter editors: Elizabeth honorary secretary: Clarissa Ward Jamieson and Matthew Winterbottom honorary treasurer: Martin Williams events committee chair: Sarah Medlam honorary editorial secretary: Elizabeth White grants committee chair: Adriana Turpin

website editor: Laura Ongaro, email [email protected] finance and membership officer: Keith Nicholls, 37 Railway Road, Teddington tw11 8sd. Tel. 0208 287 2098, email [email protected] events secretary: Anne-Marie Bannister, Bricket House, 90 Mount Pleasant Lane, Bricket Wood, St Albans, Herts. al2 3xd. Tel. 07775 907390, email [email protected] tom ingram memorial fund/fhs grants: Joanna Norman, 8 Robert Court, 4 Sternhall Lane, London se15 4be, email [email protected] honorary publications secretary: Jill Base, 21 Keats Grove, Hampstead, London nw3 2rs, email [email protected] Council members can be contacted through the Events or Membership Secretaries whose details are shown above. Contributors to this newsletter can be contacted through the Newsletter Editor who in this case is Elizabeth Jamieson at 10 Tarleton Gardens, Forest Hill, London se23 3xn. Tel. 0208 699 0310 or email [email protected] This issue edited by Elizabeth Jamieson The views expressed in this Newsletter are those of the respective authors. They are accepted as honest and accurate expressions of opinion, but should not necessarily be considered to reflect that of the Society or its employees. Registered UK Charity No. 251683

Copy Deadline

The deadline for receiving material to [email protected], be published in the next Newsletter is or posted to Matthew Winterbottom, 15 December. Copy should be Department of Western Art, The sent, preferably by email, to Ashmolean Museum, Beaumont Street, Matthew Winterbottom, Oxford ox1 2ph.

produced in great britain by oblong creative ltd, 416b thorp arch estate, wetherby ls23 7fg

cover picture Medal cabinet, Paris, c.1810, made in the workshops of Martin-Gillaume Biennais (1764–1843), probably to a design by Charles Percier (1764–1838). Burr amboyna or thuya, inlaid with silver. © Victoria and Albert Museum W8-2014. The Furniture History Society joined a large number of donors to secure this piece for the new European Galleries at the V&A.

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