A George III kingwood- and tulipwood-banded satinwood display cabinet, circa 1775, attributed to Mayhew and Ince

According to a label, in the collection of Lady Ludlow;

The Collection of Henry W. Rubin and thence by descent.

William Ince and John Mayhew were among the preeminent makers of luxurious English furniture in the second half of the eighteenth century, entering into partnership together 1758 and remaining together until Ince’s death in 1804. They even cemented the business relationship by marrying two sisters, Ann and Isabella Stephenson, in 1762, at the St George’s church that faces Sotheby’s. Their output is known for impressive marquetry, but also for delicate carved elements executed with a precise hand. The remarkably fine execution of the angles and the feet on the present cabinet are the basis for the attribution to Mayhew and Ince. Comparable work can be seen on the similarly designed angles on, for instance, a commode made by Mayhew and Ince in 1775 for the Earl of Winchilsea and Nottingham, and the base of the angles and the foliate feet very closely match a commode that they probably made for Robert Shafto in 1780-5.¹ Legs in this manner are also seen on a pair of drop-leaf tables pictured in the Dictionary of English Furniture, which sold at Christie’s in 2004 with an attribution to Mayhew and Ince.² The well-documented Mayhew and Ince suite made for Croome Court and now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York also has finely carved legs terminating in gadrooned feet in the same manner (58.75.15 to 58.75.22).

The ivorine label in this cabinet refers to Lady Ludlow, née Alice Sedgwick Mankiewicz (1890–d.1945). Sometimes referred to as ‘Birdie’, her father was originally from Gdańsk, and she is fortunate to have her likeness preserved with Philip de László’s skilful brush: she commissioned two large-scale portraits from him, one completed in 1916 and the other in 1924.3 When the first was completed, she was a widow of four years and so was still ‘Lady Wernher’ – her first marriage was in 1888 to Sir Julius Charles Wernher, the diamond magnate who lived in Luton Hoo and whose impressive art collection can still be seen today, now housed in Ranger’s House in London’s Greenwich Park. ‘Birdie’ married again on 25^th September 1919, this time to the 2^nd Baron Ludlow, though he would pass away a few years later in 1922. This cabinet was likely labelled with Lady Ludlow’s name during her second widowhood after this point, which lasted until her death in 1945.

¹ H. Roberts and C. Cator, Industry and Ingenuity: The Partnership of William Ince and John Mayhew, London, 2022, p.326 and 313.

² R. Edwards and P. Macquoid, The Dictionary of English Furniture, London, rev. ed., 1954, vol.III, p.315, fig.28 and Christie’s New York, Important English Furniture including Property from the Estate of Halsted B. Vander Poel, 8^th April 2000, lot 190 ($215,000)

³ These portraits are both in the digital catalogue raisonné of Philip de László’s work, as numbers 6784 and 6780 respectively. See <https://www.delaszlocatalogueraisonne.com/catalogue/the-catalogue/ludlow-alice-lopes-lady-nee-alice-sedgwick-mankiewicz-other-married-name-lady-wernher-wife-of-2nd-baron-6784/> and <https://www.delaszlocatalogueraisonne.com/catalogue/the-catalogue/ludlow-alice-lopes-lady-nee-alice-sedgwick-mankiewicz-other-married-name-lady-wernher-wife-of-2nd-baron-6780/> [accessed 8^th May 2025]