A SMALL GEORGE III MAHOGANY SERPENTINE LINEN PRESS, CIRCA 1760
Lot Closed
September 9, 01:30 PM GMT
Estimate
7,000 - 10,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
A SMALL GEORGE III MAHOGANY SERPENTINE LINEN PRESS, CIRCA 1760
the upper section with panel cupboard doors enclosing a later hanging rail above four slides with carrying handles to each side, the lower section with two short drawers and one long drawer, on bracket feet
170.5cm. high, 131cm. wide, 70cm. deep; 5ft. 7in., 4ft. 3½in., 2ft. 3½in.
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Formerly in the collection at Faringdon House, Oxfordshire.
The distinctive serpentine form, with its rounded corners, together with the exceptional timber employed and the quality of the cabinet-work in general, all point to an accomplished although anonymous cabinet-maker.
A serpentine ‘commode cloths press’ with canted corners features in Thomas Chippendale’s The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director, 1754 (pl. CIII and republished in the 3rd Edition, 1763, as pl. CXXX) and his design for a ‘buroe table’ (1754, pl. XLII) must have also been an influence.
The press cupboard once formed part of the collection at Faringdon House, Oxfordshire, which was home to Lord Berners and his lover, Robert "Mad Boy" Heber-Percy. The Palladian house inspired the fictional home of Lord Merlin which was immortalised in Nancy Mitford's The Pursuit of Love.