The rectangular cyma reversa and corbelled broken pediment and cornice above a blind arcaded cavetto frieze, above four glazed doors with geometric astragal mouldings, the base with a pagoda moulding above a pair of shaped paneled doors with finely modelled serpentine mouldings with foliate claps in the corners, enclosing four graduated drawers, flanked by four drawers on each side with blind quatrefoil fretwork and gilt bronze handles, above a frieze with blind Chinese fretwork on moulded plinth.

English, Circa 1765

Claude D. Rotch, Esq., The Elms, Teddington, Surrey (before 1921)
Ronald Lee

ILLUSTRATED:
R.W. Symonds, The Present State of Old English Furniture. London, 1921, fig 99.
M. Jourdain,
"Mr. C.D. Rotch's Collection of Furniture, Part I," Country Life, 7 June 1924,
p.237, fig 1.
P. Macquoid and R. Edwards, The Dictionary of English Furniture, London, vol.1, fig. 24. Page 87
"The Magazine Antiques," October 1995
Combining "Roman" architecture with elements of the French "picturesque," Chinese and the Gothick, this temple-pedimented bookcase epitomises the style popularised by Thomas Chippendale's Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director, 1754. Its general form, comprising a "commode" base with a recessed nest-of-drawers, corresponds to Chippendale's "Library Bookcase" pattern (pl. LXII). Its Roman glazing with octagon compartments, together with an arcaded entablature beneath an open pediment, featured in bookcase patterns published by Robert Sayer in A Society of Upholsterers, Cabinet-Makers etc., Household Furniture in Genteel Taste, pt. II, 1760, pls. 37 and 36. The base section is wreathed by a double-braced Chinese fret which, like its scalloped cornice, features in Chippendale's 'China Case' pattern of 1761 (illustrated in the 3rd edition of the Director, 1762 (pl. CXXXVII).

A number of stylistic features suggest that this cabinet may possibly be by the Wakefield firm of Wright and Elwick, identified as "The Wentworth Cabinet Maker" in Christie's catalogue of the sale from the Wentworth Collection, 8 July 1998. The most general feature is its dependence on designs from the two editions of Thomas Chippendale's Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director, as detailed above, but with idiosyncratic variations such as the unusual stepped plinth.

A closely related bookcase, but with key-pattern bracket feet and lacking cornice is illustrated in F. Lewis Hinckley, The More Significant Georgian Furniture, New York, 1990, p. 57, fig. 77

Height: 103" 261.5cm

Width: 91" 231cm

Depth: 26" 66cm