POSSIBLY BY GEORGE OAKLEY

Details

A PAIR OF GEORGE IV ORMOLU-MOUNTED EBONY SERPENTINE SMALL BOOKCASES
Possibly by George Oakley
Each with a serpentine rectangular verde antico marble top with three-quarter baluster gallery, above a plain frieze and three adjustable shelves, flanked by canted angles with scrolled volutes, on foliage-clasped toupie feet, one with printed paper label 'LONGLEAT'
39¼ in. (99.5 cm.) high; 34¼ in. (87 cm.) wide; 10½ in. (27 cm.) deep (2)

Provenance

Supplied to Thomas, 2nd Marquess of Bath (1765-1837) for Longleat, Wiltshire and by descent at Longleat.

Literature

1837 Inventory, p. 44, No. 64 Drawing Room, 'Pair Dwarf Book cases with Marble Tops Brass railed'.
1852 Inventory, p. 40, No. 64 Drawing Room, 'Pair of Dwarf Bookcases with Marble top, Brass railed'.
1869 Inventory, Drawing Room, 'A pair of openwork dwarf Bookcases with ormolu brackets and galleries and verde antique slabs'.
1896 Inventory (2nd Marquess' Heirlooms), f 86 r Four Room Passage, 'Pair of 3 ft shaped ebonised and gilt ormolu mounted dwarf bookcases with open shelves, green verde marble tops and open brass galleries'.

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

These serpentine cabinets, designed in the French 'antique' style, appear to have been executed in the same workshop as the cabinet-on-stand (lot 326) and the antiquarian secretaire (lot 327) and may well be the work of George Oakley (d. 1841). Although the extent of the 2nd Marquess' patronage of Oakley beyond the exceptional antiquarian suite of oak seat-furniture (lot 361) is unrecorded, the group displays certain stylistic affinities with Oakley's documented oeuvre (see note to lot 326).

Granted a Royal warrant in 1799 after receiving a visit from Queen Charlotte and other members of the Royal family, upon which '...her MAJESTY, the Duke and Duchess of YORK, and the PRINCESSES, &c., highly approved of the splendid variety which has justly attracted the notice of the fashionable world' (Morning Chronicle, May 1799), Oakley enjoyed a long and succesful career. Stretching from 1789-1819, he specialised in producing furniture in the Grecian taste for the Prince Regent and his circle.

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