A George II Scarlet and Gold Japanned Bureau Cabinet Attributed to Giles Grendey, Circa 1740

Earls of Warwick, Warwick Castle; possibly the '3 ft 4 Indian Japanned bureau and over cabinet' recorded in the Chinese Bedroom in 1893

By descent to David Robin Francis Guy Greville, 8th Earl of Warwick, 8th Earl Brooke (1934–1996)

Offered Sotheby's New York, 24 January 1984, lot 93; acquired thereafter by the present owner

GILES GRENDEY

Giles Grendey (1693-1780) was one of the most important cabinetmakers working in early and mid-Georgian London, and his workshop is indelibly associated with the production of furniture decorated in imitation of Asian lacquer, a technique referred to as japanning, a name popularised through the 1688 publication of John Stalker and George Parker's Treatise of Japanning and Varnishing. The overall form of this secretaire is virtually identical to a cabinet bearing Grendey’s trade label (illustrated in R. Edwards and M. Jourdain, Georgian Cabinet-Makers, London 1955, p.145, fig.50) and it closely resembles a small group of related scarlet-japanned bureau cabinets, particularly an example attributed to Grendey formerly in the collection of Janet Annenberg Hooker, sold Christie's New York, 22 April 1995, lot 375 ($233,500) and again 13 October 2020, lot 27 ($200,000). In addition to sharing the same architectonic structure with broken triangular pediment and serpentine border mirror panels, both secretaires employ highly similar and in some cases identical ornamental motifs in the lacquer decoration, such as the lion masks flaked by scrolling beasts above the mirror panels and the mythical animals on the bureau sides. They also share an identical model of lacquered brass foliate handles and escutcheons which has been recorded on only one other piece of furniture, a blue japanned bureau cabinet attributed to Grendey sold Sotheby's London, 15 November 1991, lot 42.

Born in Gloucestershire, Grendey was in London by 1709, when he was recorded as an apprentice to the joiner William Sherborne. His first workshop was at St. Paul's, Covent Garden, moving to premises in St. John's Square, Clerkenwell, in 1722, where he would remain for the rest of his working life. In addition to his furniture making activities Grendey was also an important timber merchant, and on the occasion of his wife's death in 1740 was described in a press notice as ‘a great Dealer in the Cabinet Way’. His businesses and professional reputation continued to flourish through the third quarter of the 18th century, his daughter marrying the cabinetmaker John Cobb in 1755, and Grendey himself becoming Master of the Joiners' Company in 1766. Unlike some of his London colleagues Grendey does not appear to have worked extensively for the aristocracy and landed gentry and seems to have focused more on the aspiring merchant classes, as well as developing a significant client base abroad. Evidence for this is revealed in newspaper accounts of a disastrous fire in his workshop in 1731, which destroyed £1,000 worth of stock described as ‘pack'd for Exportation against the next Morning’.

The majority of his production destined for export was lacquered furniture, which was highly esteemed in Southern Europe and especially in Spain, which makes the inscription on the back of the present lot particularly interesting. Although Grendey produced some of the finest quality walnut and mahogany pieces of the mid-18th century, his most celebrated commission remains the extensive suite of scarlet japanned furniture supplied to the Dukes of Infantado at Lazcano Castle in the Basque country of Northern Spain, comprising at least seventy-seven items of tables, chairs, mirrors and secretaire cabinets, many pieces of which are represented in major private and public collections today including the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Metropolitan Museum, and Temple Newsam House, Leeds, and are decorated with a similar ornamental repertory used on the Warwick bureau cabinet.

WARWICK CASTLE

Warwick Castle is one of England's most iconic and beloved historic properties, originally constructed as a timber structure on the banks of the River Avon in Warwickshire by William the Conqueror in 1068 and deeded to Henry de Beaumont, the first Earl of Warwick, in 1088. In the ensuing centuries the edifice was reconstructed and enlarged in stone as an imposing fortress by the de Beaumont and later the de Beauchamp families, who played an influential role as Kingmakers in the turbulent late Middle Ages, before reverting to Crown possession with the execution of Edward Plantagenet, 17th Earl of Warwick, for treason in 1499. In the 16th century it passed to the Dudley family, and subsequently in 1605 was granted by King James I to the poet and statesmen Sir Fulke Greville, later Baron Brooke (1554-1628). His descendent Francis Greville (1719-1773), 8th Baron Brooke and 1st Earl of Warwick under the title's fourth creation, undertook an important campaign of renovating the medieval building, constructing the state apartments and engaging the landscape architect Capability Brown to redesign the gardens and grounds, famously recorded in five paintings by Canaletto during his two visits to England. In 1871 a disastrous fire gutted the Great Hall and domestic apartments, which were restored in the following decade. The last Earl of Warwick to reside in the castle, Charles Greville, 7th Earl (1911-1984) transferred ownership of the estate in 1967 to his son David, who then sold it to Madame Tussaud's Group in 1978, and the house was transformed into a visitor attraction.

It is not known when exactly the japanned bureau cabinet entered into the Warwick collection. The date of the piece's creation corresponds to the period in the mid-18th century when work was underway on the new State Apartments, and a 1754 inventory of the castle does record an 'India Cabinet with gilt ing...' in the King's Room (now Anne's Bedroom), although this perhaps refers to a Chinese or Japanese export cabinet. The 1806 Inventory mentions a 'Large Ornamental Cabinet' in Lord and Lady Warwick's Lodging and Dressing Room, a description too succinct to permit identification. Much more probable is the listing from the 1893 Castle Inventory of a '3 ft 4 Japanned bureau and over cabinet' in the Chinese Bedroom, the most appropriate setting for such a piece in a 19th century interior (inventory references kindly communicated by Adam Busiakiewicz, Art Historian).

A 19th-century acquisition date of the bureau cabinet by the Grevilles would be a reasonable conjecture, given the castle interiors needed to be refurnished following the 1871 fire. This campaign was expertly undertaken by George Greville, 4th Earl (1818-1893), a notable antiquarian collector of rare books and arms and armour, and his wife Lady Anne Wemyss-Charteris (1829-1903), daughter of the 9th Earl of Wemyss and an accomplished artist and sculptor, who was one of the few female exhibitors at the opening of the Grosvenor Gallery in London in 1877. Following the 4th Earl's death the Castle was inhabited by the 5th Earl and his wife Frances Maynard, known as Daisy (1861-1938), a colourful figure who was mistress of the Prince of Wales from 1889-1898 and a celebrated socialite and philanthropist, who used the Castle as a venue for gatherings of prominent social and political figures of late Victorian and Edwardian England.