Chippendale bookcase cabinet (c. 1760 England)

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wood

132.00cm wide    249.00cm high    47.50cm deep (51.97 inches wide  98.03 inches high  18.70 inches deep)

Norman Adams

A FINE GEORGE III MAHOGANY BOOKCASE CABINET CIRCA 1765
The lower section with a pair of cupboard doors opening to three sliding shelves. The cresting with a partial paper label inscribed KENSINGTON, the backs of each section with chalked number DW938. The reverse of the right cupboard door bearing a black ivorine Norman Adams label.
The present bookcase combines several decorative motifs found in Thomas Chippendale's The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director, 1754: the double C-scrolls and scrolled acanthus carving of the broken-pedimented cresting is similar to the design of a 'Desk & Bookcase', pl LXXVIII, and is closely related to a bookcase which was with Maple & Co., Ltd, London, illustrated,The Antique Dealers' Fair and Exhibition, 1954, p. 56. The gothic and Chinese style glazing bars share affinities with a design for a 'Library Bookcase', pl. LXXI, and those on a breakfront library bookcase (one of four) almost certainly supplied by Thomas Chippendale to Sir Rowland Winn for his London house, 11 St. James's Square, and now at Nostell Priory, Yorkshire; see C. Gilbert,The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, 1978, vol.II, p.41, fig. 65. The glazing bars are also similar to those of a 'Chinese Case', pl. 106, and the glazing bars of another breakfront bookcase possibly supplied by Chippendale for Henry Hobhouse's house in Bristol, moved to Hadspen House, Castle Cary, Somerset, sold at Sotheby's house sale, Hadspen House, May 29-31, 1996, lot 24, and later, Christie's New York, October 18, 2001, lot 300 Lastly, the use of applied carved flower- head paterae to the corners of the cupboard doors of the present lot is a motif used frequently by Chippendale and is seen in a design for a 'Desk Bookcase', pl. CVII, of the 3rd edition of the Director