Apter-Fredericks

A Pair of Regency Period Rosewood and Brass Inlaid Side Cabinets by John Wellsman

The two cabinets are part of a suite of furniture supplied by the London cabinet maker John Wellsman to Sir John Davie, 9th Bt (1798-1824) for the drawing room at Creedy Park, in 1820. The suite is the most important known commission by Wellsman and is fully documented in accounts preserved among the Creedy Park papers in the Devon Record Office, described as: Two superb and highly finished Cabinets richly inlaid carved and finished to suit; statuary Marble tops rich brass trellis to folding doors lined with fluted rich silk richly carved lion claw feet etc £58 9s.

John Wellsman is first recorded in 1813, trading as a cabinet-maker and chair-maker from premises at 33 Wardour Street, Soho, with apartments in Berwick Street and additional workshops in Portman Mews. By 1821 he had expanded to occupy further workshops in Hollen Street, where he is last recorded in 1823.

Although based in London, Wellsman may well have been related to another cabinet-maker of the same name recorded in the locality of Creedy Park at Sidbury, Devon in the mid-eighteenth century.

Sir John Davie inherited Creedy Park from his father and occupied the house in 1819 following his coming of age. In 1820 he commissioned John Wellsman to redecorate the interior, and the side cabinets formed part of these works. The cost and quality reflect both Wellsman's abilities as a cabinet-maker and Sir John Davie's wish to consolidate his new position and to modernise the house at Creedy in accordance with the latest London fashions.

Unfortunately, Sir John Davie died prematurely and unmarried, in 1824 at the age of twenty six. The cabinets passed along with the property to his Uncle, and then to his descendants.

English, 1820