The Pedestal
Lot 118
A George III mahogany serpentine chest possibly by Thomas Chippendale
The rectangular moulded top above a baize lined slide and four long graduated drawers, on shaped bracket feet, 106cm wide, 61cm deep, 88cm high.
The above lot displays characteristics seen on furniture by or attributable to Thomas Chippendale and his workshop. Beyond the finely book-matched veneers to the front and high timber quality used on the top, other elements of construction and design relate to documented Chippendale cabinet furniture. The handles, feet, central slide pull, drawer construction as well as use of a red wash to the back and underside are all features commonly seen on Chippendale workshop output.
The above lots employs Chippendale’s ‘standard’ handle, his favourite early neo-classical handle pattern, illustrated in C.Gilbert, The Life and Works of Thomas Chippendale, Bristol, 1978, p.146, pl.263.
Although Chippendale's plainer mahogany furniture has been historically more difficult to attribute, the furniture supplied to Lord Pembroke for Pembroke House around the same time as he was supplying furniture for Dumfries House and furniture to Ninian Home for Paxton House which have all been key in the study of this part of the workshop’s output, see C.Gilbert, ibid., p. 271-272. A group of chests linked to Chippendale at Dumfries do not appear in his extant bills but are tentatively attributed to him on the grounds of certain constructional features. The argument for the Dumfries chests being by Chippendale is backed up by the existence of a linen press at the house which bears many of the features of the group of chests and for which a Chippendale bill of 1763 is thought to relate (see Christie's proposed contents sale of Dumfries House, 12-13 July 2007, lot 236) and the accompanying introduction by Rufus Bird in the aforementioned catalogue.
The chest offered here is links to a documented group of serpentine chests at Mersham-le-Hatch, Wilton and Paxton all of which are illustrated in C.Gilbert, ibid., pp.116-117. The Paxton chest is of very similar dimensions and drawer configuration, the Mersham chest has the same rounded moulding around the base and a brushing slide and the Wilton chest employs the ‘standard’ handle pattern.
