The Furniture History Society Newsletter 206 May 2017

n 2016 , the Fitzwilliam Museum in fruit and birds, and so on, on a black I Cambridge acquired a pair of spectacular marble ground. A small group of these Roman cabinets for its collection. These Roman pietre dure cabinets are known, and remarkable tours de force , which had been have recently been discussed in the at Castle Howard in Yorkshire since at publication, Roman Splendour, English least the mid-eighteenth century, were Arcadia: The English Taste for Pietre Dure and acquired to celebrate the bicentenary of the the Sixtus V Cabinet at Stourhead by Simon foundation of the Fitzwilliam Museum in Swynfen Jervis and Dudley Dodd (London, 1816 (see Cover Image). 2015 ). The Castle Howard cabinets are The cabinets, a near-identical pair, are of most closely related to a Roman cabinet architectural form, resembling the façades bought by William Beckford in 1812 , and of contemporary Baroque churches. They sold from Lansdown Tower, Bath, in 1841 ,1 are veneered with ebony, over a poplar and another cabinet once at carcase, and are inlaid with brightly Northumberland House, London, sold in coloured hardstones or pietre dure , with gilt- 2014 .2 Other Roman, rather than Florentine, metal mounts. They were almost certainly pietre dure cabinets in British country house made in Rome in about 1625 , and their high collections include examples at West quality and use of luxurious materials Wycombe Park, Buckinghamshire mean that they were probably made as a (purchased at the Hamilton Palace sale in special commission for an important 1882 ), Elton Hall, Cambridgeshire (another patron. Each cabinet is mounted on a later, ex-Beckford piece) 3 and the much more English, stand, veneered with mahogany, imposing Sixtus V cabinet at Stourhead, with carved and gilded ornaments. The Wiltshire. 4 This last cabinet, together with cabinets stand 125 cm high without stands, the massive Borghese cabinet, which and 222 cm high with them. They are 92 cm appeared in the London salerooms in 2016 wide and 43 .5 cm deep. and is now in the Getty Museum in The cabinets are striking examples of California, 5 and another large cabinet still very grand seventeenth-century Roman in Palazzo Colonna in Rome, 6 are of a parade furniture, and are ornamented with much more monumental scale and filigree elaborate geometrical intarsia of semi- workmanship than the pair under precious stones — which is a distinctly discussion. Roman form of the better-known, pictorial, Very little is known about the craftsmen Florentine pietre dure that depict flowers, who created these cabinets. Alvar

2 furniture history society newsletter, no. 206, may 2017 González-Palacios, who has extensively soberly finished in fine grained wood, mined the Roman archives for information with pewter stringing. Luxurious and on makers of furniture and the decorative showy pieces of furniture, these cabinets arts for this period, cites such names as were probably kept in the innermost, Innocenzo Toscani, an ebony carver, private apartments of their owners — the Giovanni Herman, ‘ebanista’, Antonio del ‘cabinet’ — where only the most important Drago, who dealt in hardstones, and guests were received. Remigio Chilholz, a cabinet-maker who Each cabinet is supported on six gilt- worked for the Borghese and other noble bronze feet in the form of crowned, families, often with pietre dure.7 Other crouching eagles, probably the crest of their craftsmen employed in this line of work original owner (Fig. 1). This supports a include Giovanni Sigrist, Giovanni Falgher narrow plinth inlaid with pinkish Sicilian and Niccolo Cavallino. A surprising jasper, and a frieze decorated with number were foreigners, such as Gaspare alternating, book-matched slices of Vanulese, a Fleming, Hans Keller, a carnelian, agate and lapis lazuli cut in Nuremburg-born silversmith and worker geometrical shapes. The middle part of the of precious stones, and Giovanni van façade of each cabinet is divided into three Santen, called Vasanzio, who had a sections by projecting pilasters formed of workshop on the via Giulia where he exceptionally finely modelled and cast gilt- ‘made ebony cabinets inset with many bronze male and female caryatids, in jewels’.8 There also seems to have been a contrapposto poses, bearing capitals thriving secondary market for precious sprouting rams’ heads. The central section cabinets; in 1613, Pope Paul V bought a has a broken pediment supporting gilt- cabinet ‘made from different stones, gems bronze putti and encloses an arched niche and other things’ from the Ceoli family for of architectural form, elaborately inlaid 3,500 scudi as a present for his nephew, with jaspers, carnelian and lapis in a Cardinal Scipione Borghese. A new stand, cartouche pattern beneath a shell motif. enriched with pietre dure, was This section is hinged and opens by means commissioned for this cabinet from of a secret lock-plate, cleverly hidden Pompeo Targone, at the cost of an behind a sliding capital, to reveal three additional 2,000 scudi.9 drawer fronts. The two flanking ‘bays’ of The Castle Howard cabinets are unusual the cabinet front are composed of six in being a matching pair, and for their very drawers, three on each side, faced with distinctive repetition of brilliant blue and coloured stones, with ornamental lock- red stones. Although each cabinet contains plates in gilt metal. The outermost caryatids many drawers, their principal function support gilt-bronze vases. An ‘attic’ storey must have been as a splendid vehicle for contains two more drawers, again with the display of brightly coloured, polished, book-matched geometrical hardstone inlay, lapidary rarities and gilded bronzes. By surmounted by a narrow frieze inlaid with contrast, the sides of the cabinets are striped fossil wood. The cresting of each

furniture history society newsletter, no. 206, may 2017 3 Fig. 1 Detail of the cabinet. © The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

cabinet is formed of a high, pedimented, Tessin, which mentions ‘[…] deux petits centrepiece inlaid with coloured stones, Cabinets de pierre de touche qui flanked by scroll volutes. These and the parroisent être fait d’èbene’, and the gilt- mouldings of the drawers and plinths of bronze eagles were interpreted as the the various bronzes are defined by pewter heraldic device of the Borghese family.12 stringing. The parapet of each of the However, Tessin’s description of the pair cabinets are surmounted by three gilt- of sombre ‘touchstone’ (black marble or bronze statuettes, of Fortitude flanked by pietra de paragone) and ebony cabinets in Prudence and Charity, with two figures of Villa Borghese does not in any way conjure reclining putti on the broken pediments.10 up the brilliantly coloured Castle Howard When they were sold by Sotheby’s in cabinets, and the Borghese eagles, which 2015, it was suggested that the Castle are invariably accompanied by Borghese Howard cabinets were originally made for dragons, are not crowned as are the twelve the Borghese family, the family of Pope gilt-bronze eagles which support the two Paul V.11 This identification was supported cabinets. by a 1717 description of the Villa Borghese Perhaps the most prominent noble by the Swedish traveller Nicodemus family who have crowned eagles as their

4 furniture history society newsletter, no. 206, may 2017 crest are the d’Este, hereditary Dukes of Henry Howard, 4th Earl of Carlisle, was Modena and Ferrara (Fig. 2).13 an omnivorous collector, with a Francesco I d’Este, Duke of Modena pronounced taste for cabinets and tables (1610–58), is a possible candidate as the made of coloured marbles, many of which owner or recipient of these cabinets, as he were acquired through the agency of the was an avid patron of the arts and had dealers, Francesco Ficorini and Belisario many Roman connections, having three Amadei.14 These Grand Tour trophies grand Roman wives in succession — made their way back to Castle Howard, Maria Caterina Farnese in 1631, her sister where, in 1745, Henrietta, Countess of Vittoria Farnese in 1648, and Lucretia Oxford, noticed ‘three very fine cabinets’.15 Barberini in 1654. This last marriage sealed Horace Walpole, who accounted the 4th a reconciliation agreed a few years before Earl ‘a great virtuoso’, visited in 1772, between the d’Este and the Barberini — noting, ‘all over the House are fine busts, Francesco I had earlier sided with Spain in urns, columns, Statues, & the finest its dispute with the Barberini pope, Urban collection in the World of antique tables of VIII. The truce was commemorated by the the most valuable marble, & some of old splendidly hirsute bust of Francesco I, Mosaic, and one of Florentine inlaying. carved by Urban VIII’s jealously guarded There are two cabinets of the same work & favourite sculptor, Gian-Lorenzo Bernini, materials’.16 These are almost certainly the of 1650–51, and doubtless other gifts and concessions were exchanged. This seems to be a possible context for these two great presentation trophy cabinets, which, even if they were made in c. 1625, could have been customized for presentation, possibly as grand marriage coffers, with the addition of d’Este crest eagle feet. After Duke Francesco’s death in 1658, ownership of the cabinets could have passed to one of the succession of d’Este cardinals who lived on at the Villa d’Este at Tivoli, although the family fortunes declined dramatically after 1695, and the Villa was being gradually emptied of its treasures by the early eighteenth century — and was finally cleared and the remainder sent to Modena in 1751. Therefore, it is quite possible that the pair of Fig. 2 The d’Este coat of arms, detail from cabinets could have been purchased then an engraved portrait of Cardinal Rainaldo by the 4th Earl of Carlisle, while on his d’Este, showing the crowned d’Este eagles. second Grand Tour, in Rome in 1738–39. © The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

furniture history society newsletter, no. 206, may 2017 5 Castle Howard cabinets — no distinction sunbursts on the back panel. The stands then being made between Roman and are mounted on four lion’s paw feet. ‘Florentine work’. By displaying them Sotheby’s, in their 2015 catalogue entry, with his Grand Tour purchases of antique state that the present cabinet stands or statues, busts and vases, columns and ‘frames’ were probably made to the design slabs of precious marbles, bronzes, gems of Charles Heathcote Tatham for the 5th and Old Master pictures, Lord Carlisle Earl of Carlisle around 1801–12.20 Tatham, evidently sought to conjure up in an influential neo-classical architect and Yorkshire an evocation of the grand designer, had met the 5th Earl in Rome Roman palazzi he had admired on his two and was later employed to remodel the tours of Italy. It is possible that Carlisle interiors of the West Wing at Castle originally intended the cabinets to house Howard, which had remained incomplete his celebrated collection of antique gems, since the 1750s. The Castle Howard many of them obtained through the cabinets were certainly displayed on their agency of the agent Philipp von Stosch, present stands in the new Long Gallery by although in fact these remained packed in 1811, together with a similar, but less trunks in his London townhouse.17 One of elaborate pair of cabinets.21 Here they the cabinets is probably that recorded in stood, flanking the archways in the central the Earl and Countess’s own apartments Octagon, until the mid-nineteenth century, on the 4th Earl’s death in 1758, while the when they were moved to the State other may be the one recorded in the State Bedchamber. However, the cabinets and Drawing Room, ‘on a carv’d Gilt Frame their distinctive stands are not referred to with a Green Baze cover’.18 By 1787, a or illustrated in Tatham’s very detailed guidebook notes that ‘In the closet [part of publication, The Gallery at Castle Howard of the Drawing Room enfilade] are two most 1811. curious cabinets formed of precious Tatham is in many ways a plausible stones’.19 designer for the cabinet stands. He was The reference to a ‘Carv’d Gilt Frame’ certainly active in the Long Gallery at and its baize cover suggests that the Castle Howard, where the furnishing firm cabinets were equipped with expensive of Marsh and Tatham (C. H. Tatham’s carved and gilded stands from an early brother) supplied pelmets, curtains and date, probably shortly after their arrival in cornices. Moreover, these curtains pick up England (Fig. 3). the Greek key motif used on the frieze of The present stands are made of the stands, and a plate depicting a caryatid rosewood with parcel-gilt ornaments. Each figure closely resembling those that stand has two turbanned caryatid term support the Castle Howard cabinets is in supporters of deliberately archaic or Tatham’s Etchings representing the best possibly Egyptian form, with raised arms, examples of ancient ornamental architecture, as if supporting burdens. Between them drawn from originals in Rome, and other parts runs a broad Greek key frieze, while of Italy, during the years 1794, 1795 and 1796 gilded Apollo-like masks emerge from (1799).22 However, the stands of the Castle

6 furniture history society newsletter, no. 206, may 2017 Fig. 3 Detail of cabinet stands. © The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Howard cabinets do not resemble the collection at Grimsthorpe Castle in 1829.25 other Tatham-designed furniture or There is also another Boulle coffer stand fittings, having a heavy, succulent of this form in the Getty Museum in splendour akin to the work of William California,26 and another stand was offered Kent and his followers. Several authorities for sale from the Robert de Balkany have suggested that some of the carved Collection in 2016 (Fig. 4).27 The original and gilded elements — the caryatids and model must be seventeenth- or eighteenth- the masks — are salvaged from the earlier, century French: in the sale of the Parisian eighteenth-century cabinet stands, but this dealer Antoine Alexandre Dubois on 20 is not borne out by physical examination December 1785, a pair of Boulle coffers of the pieces themselves.23 had stands ‘supporté par quatre consoles à Moreover, a group of very similar figures de femme avec entre jambes’.28 caryatid-supported stands for cabinets and Could it be, then, that the Castle coffers exist in British country-house Howard cabinet stands were made for the collections. Identical giltwood caryatid 4th Earl of Carlisle shortly after their figures support a pair of Boulle marquetry arrival in England, in about 1740, and are coffer stands at Chatsworth House, much earlier than we originally thought? Derbyshire,24 and another supports a stand A sophisticated London cabinet-maker for a Boulle chest at Blenheim Palace, such as Benjamin Goodison (d. 1787), who which has a provenance going back to the operated from the Golden Spread Eagle in dispersal of the 1st Lord Gwydir’s Long Acre, might have modelled the new

furniture history society newsletter, no. 206, may 2017 7 be done to elucidate the history of these cabinets and their stands in the archives in Rome, Modena and Yorkshire. The cabinets and stands remained at Castle Howard until their sale, with other Howard heirlooms, by Sotheby’s in London on 8 July 2015, lot 20, where they were bought by a European collector. The Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art temporarily barred the cabinets from export, on the grounds of their outstanding aesthetic importance and their significance to the study of furniture, to give national institutions a chance to match the purchase price.32 The Fig. 4 Stand from the Robert de Balkany Collection. © Christie’s Images, 2016 Fitzwilliam Museum immediately expressed an interest in acquiring the stands on opulent Boulle examples already cabinets, raising £1.265 million from a in circulation, substituting the metal and combination of our own funds, donations tortoiseshell inlay with the striking from supporters, a grant from the Art combination of mahogany and parcel-gilt Fund, and a £700,000 grant from the carved wood.29 Goodison specialised in National Heritage Memorial Fund, before opulent carved and gilded furniture, such the temporary export stop expired on 19 as the pair of chests commissioned by Sir July 2016.33 Cleaned, repaired and Thomas Robinson for nearby Rokeby Hall, consolidated by conservator Robert Yorkshire, in about 1730, now in the Royal Williams, the cabinets were unveiled on 10 Collection (Fig. 5).30 August 2016, at an all-day event to These have many resonances with the celebrate Lord Fitzwilliam’s 200th Castle Howard cabinet stands, not least birthday. the combination of mahogany and The Fitzwilliam Museum had long giltwood, and the bold Greek key frieze. wanted to acquire a major Italian Robinson was, of course, the 4th Earl’s hardstone cabinet for its collection. In brother-in-law, as well as his architect and 1990, it mounted a public appeal to adviser at Castle Howard, completing the purchase the celebrated Badminton West Wing after the death of Vanbrugh. cabinet. This failed — it is now in the Such a commission would also be roughly Liechtenstein Collection in Vienna — as contemporaneous with Henry Hoare II’s did a spirited attempt to acquire at auction 1742 order from Goodison’s principal a fine ivory table cabinet, made in rival, John Boson, of a carved and gilded Augsburg in c. 1660, and inset with stand for the Sixtus V cabinet at Florentine pietre dure plaques — which Stourhead.31 Clearly, there is more work to ended up in the Rijksmuseum in

8 furniture history society newsletter, no. 206, may 2017 Fig. 5 Attributed to Benjamin Goodison, chest, c. 1730, one of a pair for Sir Thomas Robinson for Rokeby Park, Yorkshire. © HM The Queen and the Royal Collection Trust

Amsterdam.34 However, in 2014, the decorative art of the period, a tradition Fitzwilliam Museum successfully first established by Sir Sydney Cockerell, purchased the ‘Ballyfin’ cabinet at Director of the Museum in the 1920s. The Bonhams’ auction, the ebony ‘pair’ to the Fitzwilliam Museum already owned ivory cabinet we had missed, which is not important seventeenth-century cabinets by only inset with Florentine pietre dure Pierre Gôle and André Charles Boulle (on plaques and gilt-bronze mounts, but is one AIL allocation in 2010), the latter with a of the few pieces of seventeenth-century curious stand in the Egyptian taste that furniture that is signed by its maker, Elias has similarities to the Castle Howard Bosscher.35 This fine Augsburg cabinet, cabinet stands. The Museum’s splendid which boasts a remarkable number of Roman Baroque console table, purchased ingenious and well-hidden secret drawers, from Mentmore Towers in 1977, is another provides a fitting context for the much comparable object in the collection, as is a larger Roman cabinets from Castle distinguished group of Italian neo-classical Howard. furniture on loan from the Frua-Valsecchi The Fitzwilliam Museum has a Collection. As a University museum we remarkably good and representative place a special emphasis on using our collection of furniture, ranging from Italian collections for teaching and research, and cassoni, to work by a wide range of the cabinets, now prominently displayed twentieth-century makers. Much of the in the Founder’s Gallery, are already being collection is displayed in the galleries, used for teaching classes on themes alongside paintings, sculpture and ranging from the history of collecting to

furniture history society newsletter, no. 206, may 2017 9 geology. Just over 200 years ago, in 1816, 11 Treasures, p. 128. 12 Nicodemus Tessin, Traicte de la decoration Richard, 7th Viscount Fitzwilliam of interieure (1717), edited by P. Waddy Merrion left his alma mater his collections, (Stockholm, 2002), p. 261. which were particularly rich in Italian 13 ‘Azure an eagle argent crowned or.’ 14 Treasures, pp. 128 and 131. pictures, including masterpieces by Titian, 15 ‘Account of the Visit of Henrietta Countess of Veronese and Palma Vecchio. Since then, Oxford to Castle Howard in April 1745’, MS at Welbeck Abbey. countless gifts, bequests and purchases 16 ‘Horace Walpole’s Journals of Visits to have made the Fitzwilliam Museum an Country Seats etc’, Walpole Society, xVI (1927– extraordinary treasury of art. The two 28), 72. 17 Ex inf. Orlando Rock. great cabinets from Castle Howard further 18 Castle Howard Probate Inventory, 1759. enrich this array, and are a coup worthy of 19 A New Display of the Beauties of England (London, 1787), 2 vols. the Museum’s bicentenary. 20 Treasures, pp. 134–35. 21 See John Jackson’s View of the Long Gallery at acknowledgements Castle Howard, 1811. Castle Howard Victoria Avery, Simon Swynfen Jervis, Collection. 22 Ex inf. Leela Meinertas, V&A. Leela Meinertas, Wendy Phillips, Helen 23 Ex inf. Robert Williams, conservator, who Ritchie, Orlando Rock and Anastasia repaired the cabinets in 2016. 24 Illustrated in John Cornforth, London Interiors Tennant. tim knox (London, 2000), p. 69 at Devonshire House in London in 1919, and in The Duchess of Devonshire, Chatsworth: The House (London, 1 English and Fasana, 4–5 January 1841. 2002), p. 88, in situ in Chatsworth. 2 Simon Swynfen Jervis and Dudley Dodd, 25 Treasures, pp. 134–35. Roman Splendour, English Arcadia: The English 26 Gillian Wilson, Baroque and Régence: Catalogue Taste for Pietre Dure and the Sixtus V Cabinet at of the J Paul Getty Museum Collection (Los Stourhead (London, 2015), pp. 37 and 21–24. Angeles, 2008), p. 64. Sold Christies, 10 June 1998, lot 20. 27 Robert de Balkany Collection Rome and the 3 Jervis and Dodd, Roman Splendour, English Côte D’Azur, Christies, London, 22–23 March Arcadia, pp. 20 and 59. Sold Sotheby’s, 2016, lot 71. London, 9 July 2014, lot 4. 28 Wilson, Baroque and Régence, p. 59. 4 Jervis and Dodd, Roman Splendour, English 29 Orlando Rock first suggested Benjamin Arcadia, pp. 62–107. Goodison as the author of the Castle Howard 5 Jervis and Dodd, Roman Splendour, English Cabinet stands. Arcadia, pp. 55–56. Robert de Balkany 30 RCIN 4649, Royal Collection Trust, https:// Collection, Sotheby’s, Paris, 20 September www.royalcollection.org.uk/collection/theme 2016, lot 56. s/exhibitions/the-first-georgians/the-queens- 6 Jervis and Dodd, Roman Splendour, English gallery-buckingham-palace/a-pair-of-chests. Arcadia, pp. 58–59. 31 Jervis and Dodd, p. 63. 7 Treasures, Sotheby’s sale catalogue, 8 July 2015, 32 http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/sites/ pp. 128–32. default/files/download-file/Export% 8 Treasures, p. 131. 20Objects%20Cultural%20Interest%202015- 9 Treasures, p. 131. 16.pdf, pp. 42–43. 10 As identified by Nick Humphrey, Victoria and 33 Acquired by the Fitzwilliam Museum in 2016 Albert Museum, Statement to the Reviewing with grants from the National Heritage Committee on the Export of Works of Art. Case Memorial Fund, the Art Fund, the John 19 (2015–16), section 1. It should be noted that, Armitage Charitable Trust, the Drawing while several of the finial figures have holes Matter Trust, a bequest from Dr Peter Walker cast into their clenched hands, there are only and several private benefactors. three removable spears currently associated 34 BK 1999.85. ‘An Augsburg showpiece’, Annual with them. The fact that some of the original report, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam (1999), pp. detachable attributes are now lost means that 56–57. the question of iconography must remain open. 35 Bonhams, London, 5 December 2014, lot 20.

10 furniture history society newsletter, no. 206, may 2017 Society News

Obituary own extensive and systematic archive on coaches and carriages, the main bulk of DRRUDOLFHERMANNWACKERNAGEL which he gave to the equivalent 1933–2017 institution in Vienna, the Kaiserliche Rudolf Wackernagel (‘Rudi’ to his friends) Wagenburg. His help and inspiration is died on 21 February 2017, his eighty- acknowledged in virtually every serious fourth birthday. From a notable Swiss publication on coaches published in family of scholars (Jacob Burkhardt was Europe in the last fifty years, such as, for his great-grandmother’s cousin) and with example, Astrid Tydén-Jordan, an Irish grandmother, he was one of the Kröningsvagnen (Stockholm, 1985) and Society’s most distinguished members. He Julian Munby, ‘Queen Elizabeth’s had a double career, working as a painting Coaches: The Wardrobe on Wheels’, conservator at the Niedersächsisches Antiquaries Journal, 83 (2003). He Landesgalerie in Hanover, and then in continued active and productive to the Munich, first at the Bayerisches end, recent publications including Nationalmuseum, then at the contributions to the catalogue of the coach Stadtmuseum, and finally, until his museum at Schloss Auerstedt, housing the retirement in 1997, at the Lenbachhaus, coaches and carriages of the Grand-Dukes where he became the leading authority on of Sachsen-Weimar and Eisenach (Weimar Kandinsky’s techniques. But for members and Munich, 2011) and a major article, of this Society he will be remembered for ‘Braut-Kobel der Hedwig, Tochter K. his magisterial thesis, Der Französiche Kasimirs v. Polen, von 1475: Vom Reisen Krönungswagen (Berlin, 1966) and for his im spätem Mittelalter — zum Fahren in great article, ‘Carlton House Mews: The der aufkommenden Neuzeit’, in Ernst State Coach of the Prince of Wales and of Pöschl (ed.), Ein Gulden Wagen macht Staat, the Later Kings of Hanover. A Study in the Schriften zur ‘Landshuter Hochzeit 1475’, 7 Late-Eighteenth-Century “Mystery” of (2016). The study of coaches and carriages Coach-Building’ in Furniture History, 31 naturally attracts many whose primary (1995). His crowning achievement was the interests are technical or hippological, but massive two-volume Staats- und Rudi, on the other hand, while being fully Galawagen der Wittelsbacher (Stuttgart, master of the technology of his subject, 2002), a catalogue of the wonderful saw it as his mission to introduce the skills collection of the Marstallmuseum at and knowledge of the art historian to the Schloss Nymphenburg outside Munich, understanding and appreciation of these where he generously deposited part of his — in many cases — great and complex

furniture history society newsletter, no. 206, may 2017 11 works of art. Our condolences go to his save the dates widow, Bettina, a distinguished musicologist. Annual Lecture, Society of simon swynfen jervis 1 Antiquaries, London

1 Who was delighted to discover that in winter tuesday 31 october 2017 1838–39 the teachers at the Philosophy Faculty 6 pm for 6.30 pm start of Basel University included, alongside Dr Wilhelm Wackernagel, Rudi’s great-grandfather, Judith Goodison will speak Dr William Marriott, his own great-great- grandfather, the former’s courses including one on Thomas Chippendale junior. on Walther von der Vogelveide, the latter’s one Further details to follow in the August on Shakespeare’s King Lear. Rudi possessed a printed programme. Small world. Newsletter and on the website: www.furniturehistorysociety.org/events Hosted by The Frick Collection

friday 27 october 2017 Armchair by Thomas The Furniture History Society and The Chippendale Frick Collection welcome submissions junior from from PhD students, post-doctorates, and the Picture emerging museum scholars for a Room at Stourhead, symposium on European and British Wiltshire furniture history, as well as on historical interiors in the United States and abroad. Annual General Meeting Topics relevant to the Frick’s distinguished collection of European furniture or Gilded & Works in Progress Age settings are particularly encouraged. saturday 25 november 2017 Applicants are requested to send a current C.V. and 300-word abstract outlining Please note that this year the meeting will the topic of a twenty-minute paper to be held at the Guildhall in Bath and will be [email protected] and followed by a furniture-orientated tour led [email protected] by 18 June by curators Tom Boggis and Catrin Jones at 2017. the Holburne Museum. Further details to follow in the August Newsletter and on the website: www.furniturehistorysociety.org/ events

12 furniture history society newsletter, no. 206, may 2017 Future Society Events

Bookings Cancellations For places on visits please apply to the Please note that no refunds will be given for Events Secretary, Anne-Marie Bannister, cancellations for events costing £10.00 or Bricket House, 90 Mount Pleasant Lane, less. In all other cases, cancellations will be Bricket Wood, St Albans, Hertfordshire AL2 accepted up to seven days before the date 3xD (tel. 07775 907390), with a separate of a visit, but refunds will be subject to a cheque for each event, using the enclosed £10.00 deduction for administrative costs. booking form. Where possible, joining Please note that in the rare instances where instructions will be dispatched by email, members cannot pay until the day of a visit, so please remember to provide your they will still be charged the full amount for email address if you have one. There is the day if cancelling less than seven days no need to send an SAE if you provide a before the visit, or if they fail to attend. This clearly written email address. is necessary as the Society has usually paid Applications should only be made by in advance for a certain number of members who intend to take part in the members to participate in, for example, a 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 where you can be reached. Please note that a closing Weekend Visit to date for applications for visits is printed in Edinburgh the Newsletter. Applications made after the thursday 12 october (evening) closing date will be accepted only if space – sunday 15 october 2017 is still available. Members are reminded that places are not allocated on a first King George IV described the upper come, first served basis, but that all library as ‘the finest drawing room in applications are equally considered Europe’, when he visited the then newly following the closing date. completed Edinburgh Signet Library in Please note the Events email address: 1822. A visit to the library, home of The [email protected] Society of Writers to Her Majesty’s Signet

furniture history society newsletter, no. 206, may 2017 13 — an ancient association of Scottish the Marquess of Linlithgow, it is run as a lawyers — is planned for the FHS Autumn charitable trust in order to preserve the Study weekend. The Library contains its house for the future. Hopetoun was original furniture and is rarely open to designed by Sir William Bruce between visitors. l699 and 1707 , but is considered to be the Electric light has not yet been installed masterpiece of William Adam, who greatly in the 1820 s Halls of the Speculative enlarged the building in 1721 –48 . The Society, where drinks will be served and grand interiors were finished by his sons, FHS members will be able to study Robert and John. furniture by William Trotter made for the Other house visits for the weekend building, part of the Old College of include a morning at Newhailes, a Edinburgh University. The Society, one of seventeenth-century Palladian mansion, the oldest debating and literary groups in with a lavish interior, now run and the world, was started in 1764 and carefully preserved in as original a continues today. This is another door condition as possible by the National Trust rarely open to visitors. for Scotland. The FHS will also tour the At magnificent Dalmeny House, by National Museum of Scotland’s Design kind permission of Lord Dalmeny, the FHS Gallery, followed by a special visit to their will be able to study the splendid large furniture store. Rosebery and Mentmore collections of The tour is led by Professor Edward furniture. Dalmeny is a Gothic revival Hollis, with Kate Dyson. mansion, designed by William Wilkins and As the tour starts early on the morning completed in 1817 . of Friday, 13 October, rooms have been Hopetoun House is billed as Scotland’s booked at the Hilton Edinburgh finest stately home. The family home of Grosvenor in the city centre for three nights from the Thursday, when a furniture lecture is planned in the early evening. Members should register interest with the Events Secretary. Further information will be supplied in due course.

Halls of the Speculative Society

14 furniture history society newsletter, no. 206, may 2017 Occasional Visits

Private Tour of Recent Private Visit to Acquisitions and Loans, Madresfield Court, Fitzwilliam Museum, Madresfield, Malvern University of Cambridge WR13 5AJ and Croome monday 15 may 2017 Court, near High Green, 10.30 am–1 pm approx. Worcester, Worcs. wr8 9dw This visit was advertised in the February thursday 6 july 2017 2017 Newsletter, and is now fully 10.30 am–4 pm subscribed. Please contact the Events Secretary if you would like to go on the Madresfield Court is a moated stately waiting list. home with its origins in the 12th century. It has never been occupied other than by one Private Visit to the Home family, the current generation being the 29th. It is set in a most attractive location, of James Joll, Pewsey, nestling beneath the Malvern Hills. Wiltshire and the Members will enjoy the collection of furniture, which comprises pieces of Merchant’s House, Boulle and Continental furniture acquired 132 High Street, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as well as an extensive collection of Marlborough, portraits, paintings and porcelain. A Wiltshire sn8 1hn highlight will be the richly decorated Chapel, assumed to be the model for monday 12 june 2017 Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead, and the 10.30 am–3.30 pm approx. carvings in the Library, which are the work This visit was advertised in the February of members of the Arts and Crafts 2017 Newsletter, and is now fully movement, of which there are many subscribed. Please contact the Events examples in Madresfield Court. Secretary if you would like to go on the In the afternoon we will visit Croome waiting list. Court, set within a restored ‘Capability

furniture history society newsletter, no. 206, may 2017 15 Madresfield Court

Brown’ landscape. Although some of the shaped global histories of design and original furniture left the house many manufacture, from the 1850s to today. years ago, and is now found in museum Plywood will bring together significant new collections in Britain and America, the fine research and over 150 objects — many of Adam interiors remain and are the subject which have never been on public display of current conservation work by the before — to explore the huge and National Trust.

COST: £60 (INCLUDINGLUNCH)

LIMIT: 20

CLOSING DATE FOR APPLICATIONS: MONDAY 19 JUNE 2017

Private Visit to Plywood Exhibition, Victoria and Albert Museum, London sw7 thursday 13 july 2017 4 pm Plywood, which opens at the Victoria and Albert Museum on 15 July, will be the first major exhibition on a material that has Chair by Grete Jalk

16 furniture history society newsletter, no. 206, may 2017 surprising impact that this versatile Collection, accumulated mainly by Lionel material has had across many different Cranfield, 1st Earl of Middlesex fields of design. Members will enjoy a (1575–1645) and Charles Sackville, 6th private tour of the exhibition prior to Earl of Dorset (1638–1706), through their public opening led by Christopher Wilk, appointments at the Stuart Court. The Curator of the exhibition and Keeper of collection is particularly rich in historic the Furniture, Textiles & Fashion textiles and upholstered furniture Department at the museum. (including the famous Knole sofa), some being rare survivals from Hampton Court cost: £25 and the now destroyed Palace of limit: 15 members Whitehall. This special visit will comprise a tour of the state rooms and its closing date for applications: important furnishings, the new Hayloft monday 26 june 2017 Learning Centre and conservation studio as well as the newly re-opened Gatehouse Visit to Knole House, Tower, former home of novelist and Knole Park, Sevenoaks, music critic Eddy Sackville-West (1901–1965). Kent tn15 0rp The visit will be led by Emma monday 11 september 2017 Slocombe and Wolf Burchard. 10.30 am–3.30 pm approx. cost: £55 (including lunch) Knole in Kent has been the seat of the limit: 20 members Sackville family for more than 600 years. The house contains the largest collection closing date for applications: of royal furniture outside the Royal friday 14 july 2017

Knole House

furniture history society newsletter, no. 206, may 2017 17 Private visit to Clarence inspect some of the Chippendale seat furniture bought by the late Queen House, The Mall, London Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, and sw1 1ba probably originally supplied by Chippendale to Prince William Henry, monday 18 september 2017 Duke of Gloucester (1743–1805). 5.30 pm–7 pm approx. cost: £30 HRH The Prince of Wales has kindly given (including drinks/snacks) permission for the Society to visit Clarence House. The visit will comprise the ground- limit: 15 members floor rooms, which house a number of closing date for applications: important pieces from the Royal friday 14 july 2017 Collection. There will be an opportunity to

Clarence House

18 furniture history society newsletter, no. 206, may 2017 Overseas Events

Study Trip to Barcelona comprehensive collection and study of sixteenth- to eighteenth-century Spanish wednesday 27 september – furniture, silver and decorative arts. sunday 1 october 2017 Impressively, the collection comprises Fernando Romero Simó, Dip. RSA, art more than eight hundred pieces so far. consultant and long-standing FHS Other likely visits will include the Reial member, and Dr Melanie Doderer-Winkler Monestir de Pedralbes (Royal Monastery are organizing this study trip with the of Pedralbes, a masterpiece of Catalan support of the Asociación para el Estudio Gothic architecture, founded in 1326 and del Mueble (the equivalent in Spain of the with a unique furniture collection given FHS) and its President, furniture historian over the centuries to the order of Saint Dr Mónica Piera Miquel. Clare), the Anfiteatro anatómico del Real Of great interest will be the Fundación Colegio de Cirujanos (a late eighteenth- Privada Ramon Pla Armengol, which has century teaching amphitheatre for opened its doors only recently to select surgeons with the original rococo furniture groups and whose primary focus is the and decorations), the eighteenth-century

The Anfiteatro anatómico del Real Colegio de Cirujanos

furniture history society newsletter, no. 206, may 2017 19 and decorative arts of the Catalan Modernism movement ( 1888 –1911 ) showing various works by Antoni Gaudī and Gaspar Homar, the most accomplished designer and cabinet-maker of his time. Complementary to this is the Museo del Modernismo, a private museum with an extensive collection and where close access to the pieces should be possible. Palau Palmerola, Barcelona Other mostly private visits in and outside Barcelona are in the planning. frescos at the Palau Palmerola and the Please contact the Events Secretary for Palau Moja. The latter is the grandest more information and to register interest. palace of Barcelona and will require special permission to visit as it houses the Ministry of Culture of the Catalan FHS Grants Government. Grants available for FHS UK and Overseas The Museu del Disseny (Design Visits Including One-Day Visits Museum) opened in 2014 and is the new The FHS Grants Committee now meet home to the collections of the former quarterly to consider all applications Museu de les Arts Decoratives, the Museu from members, to support their Textil I d’Indumentària and the Gabinet de participation in FHS foreign and UK les Arts Gràfiques. It should be possible study trips where the cost of a trip not only to visit the museum itself but also exceeds £45 . Please contact Jo Norman at the storage and restoration facilities. [email protected] for The Museu Nacional d’Art de further information and grant application Catalunya is the city’s largest museum, forms. with a new display dedicated to the fine

20 furniture history society newsletter, no. 206, may 2017 Other Notices

lease note that these events are not day. This conference will explore this Porganized by the Furniture History versatile art form through the centuries. Society. Information/booking instructions International speakers will introduce key will be found under individual items. themes of ancient masterpieces and explore the continuity and revival of the Conference: Micro and art form today. For more details, see: Other Mosaics https://www.vam.ac.uk/shop/whatson/ victoria and albert museum, index/view/id/4433/event/Micro-and- london Other-Mosaics/dt/2017-06-24/eType/1/ saturday 24 june 2017 free/2 10.30 am–5.15 pm Mosaics are pictures in pieces. Conjuring Exhibition: Plywood up images from small units has been a victoria and albert revered art from antiquity to the present museum, london saturday 15 july 2017 – sunday 12 november 2017 Plywood, which opens at the V&A in July, will be the first major exhibition on a material that has shaped global histories of design and manufacture, from the 1850s to today. Plywood will bring together significant new research and over 150 objects — many of which have never been on public display before — to explore the huge and surprising impact that this versatile material has had across many different fields of design. The plywood technique, which consists of gluing Flora of the Two Sicilies tabletop, together thin layers of cross-grained wood Michelangelo Barberi, about 1850, Rome. to create a very strong, flexible, light Museum No. Loan: Gilbert 190-2008 material, has been in use since ancient © The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Collection on loan to the Victoria and times. The exhibition will start in around Albert Museum, London 1850, when the widespread adoption of

furniture history society newsletter, no. 206, may 2017 21 at the 1939 New York World’s Fair. In the post-war period, the use of plywood greatly expanded and, among other topics, the exhibition will demonstrate the huge influence of Charles and Ray Eames on 1950s and 1960s furniture design. New acquisitions of moulded plywood chairs designed by Sori Yanagi, Kenzo Tange, Grete Jalk and Osvaldo Borsani, among others, will be shown. Plywood has had a huge resurgence over the past fifteen years as a material for digital design, and the Chair by Alvar Aalto exhibition will finish with a section that highlights its use in open source design steam-powered veneer-cutting machines and maker spaces. enabled the manufacture of plywood Plywood, curated by Christopher Wilk, products on a much larger scale than ever will be at the V&A from 15 July to 12 before. Many of the most innovative November 2017. plywood designs of the nineteenth century A private visit to the Plywood Exhibition were by furniture-makers using moulded is scheduled, see ‘Occasional Visits’. plywood. The exhibition will include important nineteenth-century examples. The exhibition will look at plywood’s Lecture: Furniture of the extremely rich and experimental history in Gilded Age the twentieth century, showing influential spencer house, 27 st james’s modernist furniture by designers such as place, london sw1a 1nr Alvar Aalto and Marcel Breuer alongside monday 18 september 2017 contemporary, related experiments with 6.30 pm moulded plywood aeroplane design. Particularly important here is the British The pinnacle of artistic and technical de Havilland Mosquito — the fastest, ability and unequalled in its quality, Baron highest-flying aeroplane of World War II. Ferdinand de Rothschild’s collection of Mosquitoes, made almost entirely of French eighteenth-century furniture was moulded plywood, were manufactured assembled to furnish Waddesdon Manor. largely by woodworkers in furniture Ulrich Leben will introduce pieces by factories. the greatest chair-makers and ébénistes — The huge importance of plywood to Cressent, Riesener, Dubois and RVLC. 1930s’ and 1940s’ architecture will be Waddesdon’s collection contains the most highlighted, including through loans from important single group of works by the the Aalto Archive of Alvar and Aino royal cabinet-maker, Jean Henri Riesener; Aalto’s drawings for the Finnish Pavilion many originally created for the Palace at

22 furniture history society newsletter, no. 206, may 2017 Versailles. The Manor’s furnished interiors Exhibition: Stroh zu Gold also display the UK’s most significant collection of furniture adorned with Sèvres — Straw into Gold porcelain plaques, remarkable in both their FASANENSCHLÖSSEN (LITTLE number and originality of their mounts PHEASANTCASTLE) INTHEGROUNDS and combinations. OFSCHLOSSMORITZBURG, NEAR Other highlights include lesser known, DRESDEN, GERMANY but equally rare, examples of painted and 1 MAY 2017–31 OCTOBER 2017 lacquered or carved French furniture. Ulrich Leben is Associate Curator of The recent conservation of a rare set of Furniture at Waddesdon, Visiting straw-work wall-hangings made for the Professor at Bard Graduate Centre, New Fasanenschlössen in about 1775 has York, and has recently published, Empire prompted staff at Moritzburg to mount Style: The Hôtel de Beauharnais in Paris, with this exhibition, working with colleagues Jörg Ebeling. from the Straw Museum at Wohlen in The lecture will take place on Monday Switzerland. Although the exhibition 18 September 2017 at 6.30pm. It will be concentrates on the straw plait and hat- followed by drinks and an opportunity to making industries, varieties of the look at the restored fine eighteenth- technique were also used for wall century State Rooms at Spencer House. decoration, screens and boxes. The See website for details: technique itself is rare, and information on https://waddesdon.org.uk/whats- it is welcome. The exhibition is open until on/spencer-house-lecture-furniture-gilded October and a catalogue will be published -age-dr-ulrich-leben/ in May. See website for details: https://www.schloss- moritzburg.de/de/veranstaltungen-ausste llungen/detailseite/event/stroh-zu-gold- einmalige-kunsthandwerkliche-schaetze-a us-dem-strohmuseum- wohlenschweiz/5173/

Marquetry detail from Riesener commode

furniture history society newsletter, no. 206, may 2017 23 Book Review

uggestions for future reviews and S publishers’ review copies should be sent to Simon Swynfen Jervis, 45 Bedford Gardens, London w8 7ef (tel. 020 7727 8739 , email: [email protected]).

Victor Chinnery , Oak Furniture: The British Tradition. A History of Early Furniture in the British Isles and New England , rev. edn (Woodbridge: ACC Art Books, 2016 ). 551 pp., 240 col., 861 b. & w. illus., 32 diagrams. ISBN 978 -1-85149 -715 -7. £ 75

Published in 1979 when Chinnery was only thirty-five, Oak Furniture was commended for the Library Association’s McColvin Medal as ‘an outstanding reference book … of the year’. The product of some five years when the Salisbury- c. 1500 –1720 ; relevant appendices contain based author and his wife, Janet, combined extracts from William Harrison’s A dealing in ‘oak’ with the study of private Description of England (1586 ), Randle collections and church woodwork, it is the Holme’s An Academie or Store House of standard work on furniture of the Armory & Blazon (1688 and later), Salisbury middling classes c. 1520 –1660 and on later joiner Humphrey Beckham’s life from joined furniture. After thirty-seven years Antiquitates Sarisburienses (1771 ), in print, this is only the second edition (a inventories of provincial woodworkers, a pictorial index was added to the 1986 note on the British population in 1662 and reprint). Victor Chinnery, a Regional an essay on collecting oak furniture. The Furniture Society founder in 1985 , longer chapters 2–4 constitute the book’s fundamentally shaped his field; he died core, addressing British furniture (with lamentably young in 2015 . North American supplements) Physically larger (albeit slightly thematically: materials and techniques ( 2), shorter), the new edition’s structure is typology ( 3) and decorative and regional unchanged. A first chapter provides a styles ( 4), and this tripartite division potted social-economic description of (rather than a typological or chronological Britain and its domestic furnishings structure) holds good. Chinnery’s readable

24 furniture history society newsletter, no. 206, may 2017 approach (reminiscent of Fred Roe’s of major collections — the Burrell hands-on style) contrasts with Collection, the National Trust (almost connoisseurial precursors such as entirely absent from the book) and the Cescinsky and Gribble, or R. W. Symonds. V&A — would appear. But none has He secured extensive photographic emerged and only recently has precise illustrations, and clear structural diagrams. information about individual pieces As photographs of all furniture types started to become available online. appear throughout, the pictorial index is Apart from its text-book role, the essential for locating specific examples. usefulness of Oak Furniture is twofold: it Laudably, text and illustrations are closely assembles a mass of information from aligned, making his argument easy to secondary sources available in 1979, follow, most images serving as examples alongside Chinnery’s own research, for without detailed analysis. Occasionally, a example into Salisbury furniture; and its long caption highlights some feature, illustrations, from museums and private lending a piece greater resonance. Thanks collections, constitute a substantial visual to this text-book approach to illustration, archive. Many more, good colour images Oak Furniture reads as a series of are an attraction in this new edition, and confidently and engagingly delivered slide the improved clarity of its black-and-white lectures, echoing Chinnery’s teacher photographs is transformative. While page training, and intended, in part, to help ‘the numbers have changed, figure numbers budding connoisseur’ learn wide territory usefully remain the same. Unfortunately, quickly. The narrative flow is highly the addition or replacement of some effective, but may disappoint readers images exacerbates the original problem of wanting detail: ‘but how do we know?’. the captions: that ownership could only be The lack of fresh references derived from found by searching photographic credits. the author’s lifelong research and from Some images now have more than one dendrochronology unavailable in 1979, photo credit, others none: captioning all and the bibliography’s omission of many (rather than very few) institutional owners articles published later, in Furniture History would be a great improvement, as these and Regional Furniture, for example, are are pieces that readers can examine for regrettable. An expanded index would themselves. allow readers to mine the text, full of Naturally, opinions on authenticity insight, more fruitfully. Chinnery’s range evolve and differ, a process fostered by does not permit extensive detail about Oak Furniture. (The V&A ‘dresser’ dated individual pieces, and readers are 1659, illustrated as genuine (fig. 4:53) but instructed on the first page not to expect condemned by Peter Thornton (The more than ‘the basic principles’ and to ‘get Burlington Magazine, CxxII (1980), 774–75), to grips with the real thing’ by handling as is now published online as authentic.) much furniture as possible. Chinnery Readers may often agree with Chinnery’s might have justified this approach by the general point while suspending judgement expectation that new furniture catalogues on a piece, although his assessments seem

furniture history society newsletter, no. 206, may 2017 25 remarkably reliable when so much early fundamentally, by defining types and their furniture is compromised or idiosyncratic. key features, this method provides a solid A broader aspect of the illustrations was basis for assessment, when supplemented emphasized in his 1979 preface: ‘kinship by analysis of modifications, identification groups must be a significant factor in any of design sources and the charting of objective study of early furniture typology. documentary references. Oak Furniture’s Very few pieces are unique to any great comprehensive breadth and pragmatic extent’. Equally, superficially identical judgements remain a valuable resource for handmade furniture always show small beginners and experienced readers. In the differences. Assembling images of future, studies of single furniture types analogous pieces, as Oak Furniture does will develop the field, but Oak Furniture is repeatedly, may seem profligate, but still a keystone for new scholarship. materially assists the reader to grasp both nick humphrey consistent and varying elements. More

26 furniture history society newsletter, no. 206, may 2017 Reports on the Society’s Events

embers will have noticed that the largely surviving original furnishings and M new Newsletter includes many more silk hangings (mostly Lyonese). His photographs than before. The Editor outstandingly finely worked marquetry would be grateful if members could send cabinets at the Escorial, the Habitaciones high quality digital photographs, 1 MB de maderas finas, are preserved in pristine minimum, taken during Society visits and condition but rarely opened even to events that can be used to illustrate the experts. The group also had the privilege reports. to be amongst the very few to have gained access to the luxurious mahogany panelled Madrid cabinet attributed to Jean-Démosthène Dugourc. Originally designed as the 11–15 june 2016 private office of Manuel Godoy, Charles The following is a résumé of the detailed IV’s First Secretary of State, it is now used report to be published in the August by the Admiral General and Chief of Staff Newsletter. of the Spanish Navy. This study trip focused on exploring the Particular gratitude is due to Patrimonio eighteenth-century artistic heritage of the Nacional, the Spanish royal collections, for Spanish capital and the royal country seats granting us exceptional access to areas where the court resided during the seasons normally not open to the public in the (the so-called jornadas): Aranjuez, El Pardo company of their experts. We are equally and El Escorial. indebted to Sofía Rodríguez Bernis, With our usual special emphasis on the Director of the Museo Nacional de Artes furnishings and decorations of these royal Decorativas, and Mercedes Simal López for residences, very privileged access to their support and expert guidance. outstanding works produced at the royal daniela heinze workshops was granted. Masterpieces of the rococo (Charles III) were studied up- Suffolk close, including suites of furniture by José 14–16 october 2016 Canops and decorative schemes designed by Mattia Gasparini. The extraordinary Our first visit was to St Peter and St Paul, quality of later works produced under the Lavenham, built by John de Vere, Earl of patronage of the Prince of Asturias (later Oxford to celebrate the Tudor victory at Charles IV) could be observed at his richly Bosworth 1485, with support from local decorated country houses, the casitas. They merchants. Thomas Spring gave £200 reveal the evolution of his tastes with towards building the tower and a chantry

furniture history society newsletter, no. 206, may 2017 27 chapel; Simon Branch built the Holy captured in a watercolour by Beatrix Trinity chapel. The chancel screen and Potter, who often stayed here. Lady Ulla series of misericords were well preserved. Hyde Parker repainted the Chippendale- Melford Hall has been a property of the period mirror and two pier tables in the National Trust since 1960. Originally owned 1950s from the Dining Room, which was by the Abbots of St Edmundsbury, on the destroyed in the fire of 1942. The adjoining dissolution of the monasteries Melford was Blue Drawing Room escaped the fire, its leased to the lawyer, Sir William Cordell panelling and rococo chimneypiece intact. (1539–81). The Hall passed to Cordell’s A rare, early, seaweed-marquetry year- wife’s great-nephew, Sir Thomas Savage. going longcase clock was signed by Badly damaged in the Civil War, the Hall Richard Street, Free of the Clockmakers’ passed back to the Cordell and Firebrace Company from 1687. Glued inside the case families; Sir Cordell Firebrace updated the door are eighteenth-century notes interior from 1727, adding Georgian sash recording annual winding. windows to the north front. Melford was The Library, divided by Ionic scagliola sold to Sir Harry Hyde Parker (1769–1830), columns, is furnished in the fashionable who brought the portraits owned by Vice- Greek revival style by Hopper. Paint Admiral Sir Hyde Parker, his grandfather. scrapings revealed the colour of the Between 1813 and 1820, the house was original pink-washed walls, now refurbished to designs by Thomas Hopper, recreated. Furniture designed by Hopper, who opened up the two-storey great hall, made by Morant & Co., and Gillows, installing a grand staircase. harmonizes with the oak bookcases and In the Entrance Hall, a suite of Charles dado, with their strips and panels of yew II chairs and two sixteenth-century wood veneer and dark-stained walnut ‘Nonsuch’ chests, and in the fireplace stringing. Four sabre-leg armchairs are sixteenth-century Flemish andirons, were carved with owls’ masks on the armrests

Misericord, oak, carved with a farmer with a pig under his arms, fifteenth century, St Peter and St Paul, Lavenham, Suffolk

28 furniture history society newsletter, no. 206, may 2017 (symbolizing wisdom); the backs and seats Thomas Fonnereau. A Roman marble are upholstered in green morocco. A pair inlaid table slab, supported on a giltwood of scroll-ended ‘Grecian Couches’ by base possibly designed by Henry Flitcroft, Morant have eagle supports (symbolizing is adjacent to a pair of chairs made after victory). Payments of £700 to Morant & designs by William Kent. A set of six black Co., and over £100 to Gillows of Lancaster, walnut chairs from 1735–45, with are recorded in Sir William Parker’s bank extravagant splats and knees elaborately account for 1812–15. The room is hung carved with foliated cartouches, are from with naval victories of Admiral Sir Hyde the Ernest Cook collection. The Dining Parker by Serres, and a portrait of the Room walnut tallboy and matching chest Admiral by Romney. of drawers are inlaid with horses’ teeth. Christchurch Mansion, Ipswich, on the In the main bedroom, the alcove, with site of Holy Trinity Augustinian Priory, the Fonnereau coat of arms above, is a was built in 1547–50 by Edmund French feature. The contemporary bed is Withypool. It passed through the from Belhus in Essex. A reconstructed Devereux family and was bought by the wing incorporates a timber-framed house Huguenot Claude Fonnereau in the early from Major’s Corner, Ipswich, and an 1730s, a wealthy London merchant trading overmantel from the house of James with Hamburg. Sold in 1882 to a syndicate, Eldred, who circumnavigated the world in one member Felix Cobbold, a local brewer, 1586–88. A carving from Sir Humphrey bought the house and presented it to Wingfield’s house in Tacket Street Ipswich Corporation, with an endowment represents the marriage of Wingfield’s to buy art and furniture. relative, Charles Brandon, to Mary Tudor, The panelling in the Hall, painted to the widow of the King of France, in 1515. imitate expensive stone, includes recesses A doll’s house, with furniture made by for classical sculpture introduced in the an Ipswich resident from cigar boxes given 1740s. We noted an Italian cedar chest, two to Sir Winston Churchill, toured the chests of drawers, one chest with printed lining paper, c. 1662, with figures of Charles II and Catherine of Braganza, a longcase clock signed by Thomas Moore of Ipswich, encased with prints ‘Night Amusement ‘ and ‘Mirth and Friendship’ and a two-tier cupboard in the manner of Hugues Sambin, French, sixteenth century. The Green Drawing Room has original wallpaper hung ‘on the drop’, that is, each width staggered to vary the pattern, and a marble chimneypiece attributed to Anglo- Chest of drawers (detail) walnut inlaid with Danish sculptor Charles Stanley (1703–61), horses’ teeth, mid-eighteenth century, Dining with a veiled head brought from Italy by Room, Christchurch Mansion, Ipswich

furniture history society newsletter, no. 206, may 2017 29 country during the Second World War to The Parlour linenfold panelling is raise money for the troops. Chairs carved with pens, paintbrushes, flutes, constructed with elm seats and cherry and scrolls and scalpels representing arts, yew backs were made by Mr Day, c. 1800, music, law and medicine. The White Wing in the village of Mendlesham. was built by Robert Gosnal III in 1588 for St Mary of the Assumption, Ufford, use as a play house. Shakespeare’s Lord enlarged in the early thirteenth century, was Chamberlain’s Men visited Ipswich on completed in the first half of the fifteenth more than one occasion and may have century. The roof timbers retain much of performed at Otley. their original colouring, with the sacred monograms IHS and MR on reddish-brown wood rafters. The late fifteenth-century 18- foot baptismal font cover is surmounted by a Pelican in her Piety. The finest bench ends with Saints Catherine and Margaret were shown in the V&A 2003/4 exhibiton, Gothic: Art for England 1400 to 1547. St Agnes, St Agatha, St Brigida, St Cecilia, St Fides and St Florence are painted on the chancel screen. The Chapel of St Leonard was designed by Ninian Comper (1864–1960) in 1919 as a memorial to parishioners who died in the Great War. Otley Hall dates from the fifteenth century, but was largely rebuilt in 1512, the timber dating confirmed through dendrochronology. The house was occupied by the Gosnolds, lawyers in Tudor times. As Royalist sympathizers during the Civil War they were forced to sell in 1674. Bartholomew Gosnold led the first recorded European expedition to Cape Cod in 1607 and is considered the prime mover of the colonization of Virginia. In 2007, made-to-measure Mendlesham chairs by Finewood (Mr Lane, a Suffolk man) were made to mark the 400th anniversary of Gosnold’s voyage to the New World. They were made from American cherry and burr elm, one carved in relief with The Godspeed.

30 furniture history society newsletter, no. 206, may 2017 begun in 1480. Two working drawbridges, Elizabeth Joyce; their joint coat of arms raised every night since 1510, cross the 60- features inside and outside the church. foot wide moat. During the seventeenth The chancel was ‘classicized’ in the mid- century, the Tollemaches rose from the eighteenth century by Lionel, 4th Earl of baronetcy, awarded in 1611 under James I, Dysart, and further altered by Anthony to the Earldom awarded by Charles I and Salvin in 1840. The biblical quotations confirmed after the Restoration by Charles were commissioned by the evangelical lady Georgina Louisa, first wife of 1st Lord Tollemache, and together with the oak altar table and stools, date from the period when John Charles Rye was rector (he later became Bishop of Liverpool in 1880). The church is rich in memorials to the Tollemache family, cleaned and renovated in 1976 in memory of John, 4th Baronet. St John the Baptist, Lounds, is in the watery margins of Norfolk and Suffolk. The round-towered church with aisle-less nave and chancel was restored in the nineteenth century. Then, under the Revd Mr Booth Lynes (1908–17), J. Ninian Comper furnished it as if for Anglo- Catholic worship. A sort of ‘pop-up’ neo-medieval interior — with a high altar for the Sarum Rite Mass, a working rood screen with angels and dragons in addition to the rood figures and a font cover (a busy spire luxuriating into tracery and spirelets) — is housed under a bream spanning the nave (1911). The side- altarpiece is painted in Fra Angelico-like colours: pinks, blues and golds, and the high altar retains its hangings of 1911. The organ case (1914) closes up the tower door and occupies the whole of the west wall. The interior of Herringfleet Church was St Mary’s Church, Helmingham, was refitted in the 1820s. Its thatched roof and built by Lionel Tollemache (d. 1552), High very early Norman circular tower belie the Sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk, the flint interior. The early Gothic revival pews, tower commissioned by John Tollemache pulpit and panelling are remarkable. There in 1490 to celebrate his marriage to is a small Baroque organ in the gallery and

furniture history society newsletter, no. 206, may 2017 31 The side altarpiece designed by Ninian Comper, 1911, St John the Baptist, Lounds

important early glass from many different sources pieced together in the windows. Somerleyton Hall is a grand Victorian building, encasing a Jacobean house of c. 1610, which was bought and remodelled in the mid-nineteenth century by the important Victorian building contractor (and, later, MP for Norwich), Sir Morton Peto; his architect was the stonemason, carver and sculptor, John Thomas. In 1863, after the decline in Peto’s fortune, the house and much of the furniture was sold and subsequently purchased by Sir Francis Crossley, the Halifax carpet manufacturer, whose family have lived there ever since.

32 furniture history society newsletter, no. 206, may 2017 Apter-Fredericks 12 january 2017 On a damp and cold January morning, Guy and Harry Apter offered us a very warm welcome along with tea and biscuits in stunning surroundings accommodating a display of important English furniture. Anne-Marie Bannister introduced the group and welcomed some new members, informing us that Apter-Fredericks have been trading from this site for seventy years. Guy led the tour, inviting us to offer our own opinions and not to be too shy to raise questions. We started by examining a very fine chinoiserie bureau bookcase, one of five that are known by the same as yet unidentified maker, which provided us with an object lesson in the ageing process of japanning. Guy demonstrated the difference in appearance between the interior (less exposed to the ageing process) and exterior drawers, the interior being much fresher looking, including a number of secret drawers. The red was drawn to our attention within the decoration, leading one’s eye around the entire design. Guy felt that this piece had not undergone too much restoration, although the cresting was not original. The furniture history society newsletter, no. 206, may 2017 33 question arose, ‘What is the difference Guy pointed out an exceptional between lacquer and japanning?’. Guy was Pembroke table by Henry Hill of joined by Sarah Medlam in explaining that Marlborough ( c. 1770 ), this piece, upon lacquer was made from a tree sap in Asia fluted legs, having an unusually shaped top and could not be made in Europe. Instead, with parquetry inlay and a fine panel in the imitation japanning in the western centre. This is thought to be one of the best European countries was made up from a examples of Hill’s work. Henry Hill’s series of varnishes, and often the grain success may be measured, not just by the remained visible, which led us to numerous commissions to supply furniture appreciate this piece in finer detail. to grand west country houses, but also by Our attention was then drawn to a the work he carried out for London houses. rosewood bookcase, c. 1810 , influenced by The tour concluded by looking at Lord Thomas Hope. Both the upper section and Hesketh’s circular bookcase from Easton the bottom comprised of glass doors, Neston ( c. 1820 ), possibly made by Mack, thought to have been made for a collector Williams and Gibton. The bookcase had to display his collection to the best of its vertical divisions that locked to hold advantage. Apart from fine proportions, retaining bars in place to secure the books. the sides were of exceptional quality Each tier revolved independently from the veneers, indicating that there was no others. This was a unique piece, creating question of expense spared in the making great interest and intrigue for all of us. of this fine piece. The group, of course, also had the We were then shown the Leinster House opportunity to inspect other pieces of fine cabinets, made for the 2nd Duke of English furniture. Leinster in satinwood ( c. 1775 ). These were The vote of thanks was given by David magnificent museum-quality examples of Wurtzel who thanked Guy and Harry for eighteenth-century English cabinet- their kind hospitality and for an making. The pair of corner commodes, informative, inspiring and privileged with ormolu rams’ heads in the centre morning. panel, being decorated in the classical paul bruce Etruscan style with a fine, light and detailed feel to them, a style popular in the Arnold Wiggins & Sons last quarter of the eighteenth century, were 7 march 2017 much favoured by the patrons who had visited Italy on the Grand Tour. On this first FHS visit to Arnold Wiggins & A fine mahogany writing table by John Sons of Bury Street, London, we were Syers, one of only four made, was of great welcomed by director Michael Gregory. interest and thoroughly examined. The After art school, Michael trained as a interesting aspect of this piece was the carver and gilder alongside Jim Wiggins. construction of the drawers, incorporating He now maintains the Wiggins family’s flush panelling. This piece was previously longstanding tradition of assisting sold by Norman Adams. museums and collectors in selecting

34 furniture history society newsletter, no. 206, may 2017 historically accurate frames for their by the City in 1670, to frame portraits of pictures. the twenty-two Fire Judges who presided Arnold Wiggins & Sons have been over the ‘Fire Court’, to be hung in the framing pictures and dealing in antique Guildhall as a memorial to their service. frames since the 1920s, when the family The fire court had been established to business began. Arnold Wiggins was an settle land disputes in the city, and apprentice to his grandfather, and therefore enable quick rebuilding after the specialized in making reproduction Great Fire of London. Chippendale furniture. His sons, Jim and The frames are an excellent example of Ted Wiggins, later joined the family firm, the auricular fashion of the time, and are which began to specialize in picture known as Sunderland frames in England. frames in the inter-war period. Their size is such that they cannot be The firm now holds an extensive and assembled in the shop. The first frame was growing collection of frames, ranging from carved by John Norris, and the rest by four the very small to large gallery frames. The other workshops, presumably following collection provides models for Norris’s initial model. It is not known how reproduction frames, which are designed the pattern moved between workshops, on the premises. Michael explained that a and we were able to observe signs of painting’s frame can be crucial in creating different carvers’ hands in the examples on a sense of historical context in a museum, display. as original frames relate paintings to their To conclude a fascinating evening, we original interiors. However, a choice must were treated to a detailed overview of be made between reframing a painting for historical and cultural differences in the the sake of chronological consistency, and design of frames. An opportunity to retaining the particular sense of handle a variety of frames proved provenance that later frames convey. instructive, and was greatly appreciated The current display in Bury Street by the group. features auricular frames, inspired by the Thank you to Michael and Gerry for Wallace Collection conference on this topic sharing their knowledge, and to Declan of October 2016. The display contrasts and Nadine of Wiggins & Sons for their Medici, Dutch and English frames, hospitality. Gerry’s paper on the Fire Judge allowing the viewer to appreciate national frames will soon be published on Lynn differences in application of the soft, Roberts’ ‘The Frame Blog’. flowing auricular style. elena porter Among these are the remarkable Fire Judge frames, nine of which were sold to Blythe House Arnold Wiggins in 1952. Gerry Alabone, 2 march 2017 Senior Conservator at the National Trust’s Knole Conservation Studio, gave us the Our visit to the V&A stores at Blythe benefit of his expertise, having studied the House aimed to educate us in three frames closely. They were commissioned techniques — inlay, marquetry and

furniture history society newsletter, no. 206, may 2017 35 veneering — and the development of these Donnelly. Firstly, we looked at a mid- from the sixteenth to the twenty-first nineteenth-century table of Elizabethan- century. We were welcomed by Nick revival style, labelled by the maker, Blake Humphrey who gave us a brief & Co. of Mount Street, London (museum introduction to these ancient decorative no. W.20-1995). This table was techniques, which are closely related and commissioned by the 1st Baron Methuen sometimes combined. for Corsham Court, most likely for a According to the V&A, sitting room or bedroom. With solid ebony

Veneers are thinly sawn sheets, usually turnings to the base, the top was quarter- wood, glued onto the carcase, while veneered in sycamore with floral marquetry is a decorative ‘jigsaw’ of veneers. marquetry to the top. The floral decoration To save time, intricate patterns can be was similar in design to porcelain replicated by cutting out motifs in batches. Inlay is the insetting of individual cut-out paintings of the time. Next was a beautiful motifs into the solid wood ‘ground’. All three and intricately ivory-inlaid and rosewood- techniques require precision-cutting of richly veneered side table, probably designed by decorative woods and materials such as shell G. J. S. Lock for Collinson & Lock, and or metal. They also need glues, especially if dating to c. 1890 (museum no. W.32-1954). the surfaces are curved. The table was of early eighteenth-century The party was split into two smaller form and the ivory decoration inspired by groups. Our group worked almost the Renaissance using arabesques, putti, chronologically, beginning by looking at a birds and acanthus. The detail on this decorative German cabinet dating to piece was extraordinarily delicate. around 1560 (museum no. W.24-1931). This Kirsty Hassard then showed the group a cabinet employed the use of marquetry to mysterious rosewood, walnut and form motifs of classical ruins, consisting of tulipwood chair, dating to c. 1860–75, different species of woods. Techniques perhaps Swedish in origin, which was discussed included the use of sand singeing finely inlaid with engraved pewter to create the deeply three-dimensional (museum no. W.13-1989). The frame was chiaroscuro, as well as the use of rollwerk, a stamped twice for Carl P. Svensson, who typical German form of decoration. An was a retailer and also the upholsterer to interesting fact that seemed new to most the Swedish Royal Court. The chair was was that the vibrant green wood was not one of a set of fourteen commissioned by always dyed, but could be poplar wood Lars Olsson Smith, the founder of Absolut infected by the chlorosplenium fungi, and vodka, for Bolinder House in Stockholm. was a material commonly employed in The design of the chair is unusual for this German furniture of this date. Cabinets period in Sweden, and it is possible that such as these were not only functional Svensson imported the chairs from pieces but also a decorative focal point of Germany for sale in Stockholm. the sixteenth-century interior. The group then went back in time to the Then we turned our attention to the early eighteenth century, looking at a small nineteenth century, guided by Max writing table dating to c. 1710 (museum no.

36 furniture history society newsletter, no. 206, may 2017 W.15-1959). This walnut table employed We were also showed a mechanical the use of seaweed/arabesque marquetry dressing table/poudreuse of Oeben design, on the front and table top. There was some which dated to c. 1770 (museum no. W.89- use of the singeing technique used on the 1924). Again, the marquetry was finished leafy bands as well as some chevron with engraving and penwork to highlight banding utilized not only as decoration but details. The colour of the timbers on the also to protect the edge of the table, interiors of pieces such as this have been preventing it from chips and knocks. protected from the elements, and therefore Moving on to France, Sarah Medlam appear much more vivid, giving us a showed us one of a pair of encoignures by glimpse into how the exterior might have Jean-François Oeben dating to the early looked in the eighteenth century. 1760s (museum nos 1114&A–1882). Oeben The next piece to examine was a was the Royal cabinet-maker in Paris, commode, attributed to John Cobb, from known for marquetry and the 1770s (museum no. W.30-1937). This gadgetry/mechanical pieces. The frieze was French in style and, again, was and piers were inlaid with green-stained supplied to Corsham Court. The top was burr-ash, which was used to imitate green inlaid with a pineapple inside an oval, marble tops. There was an interest in harking back to pietre dure of the past. botany in the eighteenth century, which Ovals were typical of Cobb’s decoration, meant that there were many anatomically but the pineapple was a particularly exotic correct images of flowers available at this addition at the time. The back of the top time. The marqueteur composed these lilies overhangs, allowing for a dado rail, a in the manner of Louis Tessier, the noted seemingly English attribute. One feature draughtsman and painter of flowers. that was particularly interesting to look at These marquetry flower patterns could be here was the loss of penwork detail as a mass-produced and laid-down in mirror result of scraping down the surface in an image. The detail to these flowers was attempt to reveal the original colours, enhanced by further engraving. which were fugitive and faded quickly.

furniture history society newsletter, no. 206, may 2017 37 We were also treated to a quick look at a the form was manufactured using masterpiece in marquetry by Roentgen computer-aided design (CAD). This table (museum no. 1076-1882). The marquetry is one of an edition of twenty. This was a panels dated to the 1770s, and were later wonderful juxtaposition of old and new, added to a nineteenth-century French combining the traditional technique of table. veneering with modern technology. The Onto the twentieth century, Elisabeth fluid form takes inspiration from classical Murray showed us the use of burr-walnut eighteenth-century designs, with the veneers on a cabinet by Maurice Adams outlines of a commode morphing into the Ltd, dating to 1928 (museum no. W.49- outline of a table as your eyes move from 1934). Burr-walnut was popular in the one end to another. It was created by 1930s and 1940s. Burr woods are not veneering fifty-seven layers of birch stable, so they have to be used in veneer. plywood together to build this sculptural The curve of this form means the veneer is form. uninterrupted. This is aided by the clever Our tour through the history of these use of mortising to prevent movement and techniques was concluded by a browsing create shape. The veneers are book- session looking at all different styles of matched (a mirror image of one another). embellishment, from prisoner-of-war The edges to the cabinet were mitred, so straw-work to a 1980s bowl, from ivory- the edges of the veneers are not as visible. inlaid tortoiseshell to sand-singed We all learnt a new word for plywood, ecclesiastical panels from the beginning of which makes up the carcase of this cabinet the sixteenth century. For the museum — laminated gaboon. In 1934, shortly after numbers of pieces examined during this its manufacture, this piece was session, please see below. accessioned to the V&A. The tour was a fascinating insight into We also looked at a fascinating large the techniques used throughout the last tray, made in 1913, by Henri Gaudier- five hundred years to decorate furniture Brzeska, depicting two wrestlers (museum and objects. We are very grateful to all the no. W.30-1978). Johanna Agerman-Ross, staff at the V&A for sharing their passion recently appointed curator for twentieth- for their subject areas and giving us an century and contemporary furniture, told incredibly educational and enjoyable us it was designed by Gaudier-Brzeska, behind-the-scenes visit to Blythe House. and made by the craftsman John Joseph celia harvey and lily faber Callenborn in the Omega workshops. The marquetry scene depicted shows obvious Museum numbers for browsing session: influence from the Vorticism movement. 2422-1856, 2158-1855, 2393-1855, 2716- Finally, and perhaps the most unusual- 1856, 7399-1860, CIRC.360-1976, looking of the pieces seen, was ‘The W.42-1926, W.17-1985, 2002-1900, 235-1887, Cinderella Table’. Designed by Jeroen 670-1878, W.52-1940, W.9-1915. Verhoeven in 2005 (museum no. W.1-2006),

38 furniture history society newsletter, no. 206, may 2017 The Tom Ingram Memorial Fund and Oliver Ford Trust

The Tom Ingram Memorial Fund makes the Oliver Ford Trust has generously grants towards travel and other incidental expressed the desire to sponsor a place on expenses for the purpose of study or each FHS study weekend or foreign tour. research into the history of furniture (a) Applicants should either be a student with whether or not the applicant is a member a particular interest in interiors, or a junior of the Society; (b) only when the study or museum professional. Applications from research is likely to be of importance in non-members will be considered. Grants furthering the objectives of the Society; and will be awarded via the Tom Ingram Fund, (c) only when travel could not be to which candidates should apply. undertaken without a grant from the The FHS Grants Committee now meets Society. Applications towards the cost of quarterly to consider all grant FHS foreign and domestic trips and study applications, either for independent weekends are particularly welcome from travel/incidental expenses for the purpose scholars. Successful applicants are required of study or research, or for participation in to acknowledge the assistance of the Fund FHS foreign and UK study trips. in any resulting publications and must Completed application forms should be report back to the Panel on completion submitted, with current curriculum vitae, of the travel or project. All enquiries by the following deadlines so that they can should be addressed to Jo Norman at be considered at these meetings: 10 june, [email protected], or for 10 september or 10 december further information and grant application forms see the Grants page of the Society’s tom ingram memorial fund/fhs grants website, www.furniturehistorysociety.org. secretary: Joanna Norman, 8 Robert In line with one of its roles — the Court, 4 Sternhall Lane, London se15 4be. promotion of interest in interior design — Email: [email protected]

furniture history society newsletter, no. 206, may 2017 39 Officers and Council Members honorary editorial secretary : Lisa White council members : Guy Apter, Rufus Bird, president : Sir Nicholas Goodison Jonathan Coulborn, Kate Hay, Laura Houliston, chairman of the council : Christopher Rowell Marcus Rädecke honorary secretary newsletter editor : Sharon Goodman & website editor : Megan Wheeler events committee chairman : Sarah Medlam honorary treasurer : Martin Williams grants committee chairman : Adriana Turpin

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, Hertfordshire al2 3xd . Tel. 07775 907390 ; email: [email protected] tom ingram memorial fund/fhs grants secretary : Joanna Norman, 8 Robert Court, 4 Sternhall Lane, London se15 4be ; email: [email protected] publications secretary : Jill Bace, 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 can be contacted through the Newsletter Editor who is Sharon Goodman, 26 Burntwood Lane, London sw17 0jz . Tel. 07855 176779 ; email: [email protected] 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

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The deadline for receiving material to be email: [email protected], or published in the next Newsletter is 15 June. by post to 26 Burntwood Lane, London Copy should be sent, preferably by email, sw17 0jz . Tel. 07855 176779 . to Sharon Goodman,

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40 furniture history society newsletter, no. 206, may 2017