A George III Mahogany Secretaire Cabinet on Stand Attributed to William Vile, Circa 1760

This secretaire is one of four cabinets on stand of identical form attributed to the Royal Georgian Cabinetmaker William Vile (c.1700-1767). The best known of these is the 'D'Arcy Cabinet', which belonged to Robert D'Arcy, Earl of Holderness at Hornby Castle, Yorkshire, who was Secretary of State to George III. In the 20th century the cabinet was in the Arthur Leidesdorf Collection, sold Sotheby's London, 27 June 1974, lot 23, and again sold Sotheby's London 18 November 1983, lot 60. An almost identical version of slightly narrower width, possibly intended as a pair, was in the collection of Mrs Madeline S. Hoffmann sold Parke Bernet Galleries, New York 12 April 1969, lot 20, and is illustrated in R. Edwards, The Dictionary of English Furniture (London 1954), Vol. I p.151 fig.58. The side panels of both these cabinets present a cut-corner carved moulding with rosettes.

The third example was formerly in the possession of Lady Dudley Ward at Dudley House, London, and is now in the Noel Terry Collection at Fairfax House, York (P. Brown, The Noel Terry Collection of Furniture & Clocks, York 1987, n.96 p.96-97). This has variations in carving to the other secretaires in the series, and solid mahogany backs to the upper shelf and cupboard rather than pierced fretwork. The sides are unadorned without a moulded border and rosettes, as on the offered lot. 

In the absence of documentation for any of these cabinets, the attribution to Vile is based on stylistic parallels with the master's Royal commissions. The distinctive Chinese fretwork is directly comparable to that on 'an Exceeding fine Mohogany Secretary' supplied to Queen Charlotte in 1762, in the form of a violin-shaped chest of drawers including a writing drawer and surmounted with glazed fretwork upper shelves (Royal Collection Trust RCIN 2571). The carved foliate swags of the legs and recessed acanthus rosettes on the lower drawer also relate to the carved decoration on a monumental medal cabinet Vile and his partner John Cobb supplied to George III in 1760-1761, which was dismantled in the early 19th century and sections of which were used to create two smaller cabinets, now divided between the Victoria & Albert Museum and the Metropolitan Museum (illustrated in Edwards, p.187 fig.48). This adaptation is interesting in the context of the offered lot, which had lost its central shelf and been reduced in height when it appeared on the market in 1987, and has since been restored to its original form.

William Vile was one of the foremost cabinetmakers of mid-18th century England, part of the 'St Martin's Lane Syndicate' of furniture makers based in Central London along with William Hallett and John Cobb, with whom he entered into partnership in 1750. From 1761-1764 Vile and Cobb held a Royal Warrant as 'Cabinet makers and Upholsterers to His Majesty King George III' and supplied a large quantity of furniture to the King and Queen Charlotte at St James's Palace and the Queen's House (the future Buckingham Palace). Following his retirement in 1764 he was succeeded as supplier to the Great Wardrobe by his apprentice and workshop assistant John Bradburn (d.1781), who in 1767 is credited with adding the Chinese fretwork to the secretary Vile had supplied to the Queen five years earlier. This raises the interesting possibility he may have been involved in the production of the present cabinet or any of the others in the series.