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Lot Essay
There was a tradition for collecting lacquer and japanned furniture at Ham House, near Richmond, Surrey, the seventeenth-century ‘villa’ on the bank of the Thames, home to the Earls of Dysart, which has retained much of its original décor and furnishings. In 1672, Elizabeth Tollemache, 2nd Countess of Dysart (née Murray, 1626-98), married John Maitland, Duke of Lauderdale and until 1679 Ham House underwent a radical ‘modernisation’ and refurbishment. This included the acquisition of fashionable lacquer and japanned furniture such as the magnificent Japanese and Chinese lacquer cabinets still in situ in the state rooms.
Lionel Tollemache, 4th Earl of Dysart (1708-70)
This taste was undoubtedly inherited by Elizabeth’s grandson and heir, Lionel Tollemache, 4th Earl of Dysart, styled Lord Huntingtower from 1712-27. The 4th Earl was a patron to many London cabinet-makers, and commissioned varied and sophisticated furniture adding to the 1670s lacquer and japanned furniture at Ham, including a Chinese lacquer domed top coffer on stand, c. 1750, and a japanned tripod tea table with circular tray top, c. 1750 (ed. Rowell, op. cit., p. 280). Purchasing new furniture and repairing existing pieces at Ham began in c. 1729 under the 4th Earl’s patronage, the year of his marriage to Lady Grace Carteret, an amateur artist and decorator of furniture in her own right. At the same time, extensive work was underway at other Dysart seats, Helmingham Hall, Suffolk, and in London, at 7 Savile Row (1739-44), 6 Whitehall Yard (from 1744-50) and 4 New Burlington Street (1748-58).
The maker of the tables offered here cannot be firmly identified. They were probably made in circa 1720, and are thus, seemingly, too early for the 4th Earl, who favoured fashionable, contemporary-style furniture. However, one possible candidate, patronised by the 4th Earl and working at Ham, is the London cabinet-maker George Nix (1691-1751) - although his surviving bills do not list these tables. Between June 1729 and April 1734, Nix supplied 150 works to the 4th Earl amounting to £430 13s 6d (ibid., p. 283). The 4th Earl was committed to the care of his inherited collection, and Nix also made repairs and alterations, that included working with lacquer at Ham. Nix removed the lacquer top from the Japanese lacquer cabinet, itself dating to circa 1670, in the Long Gallery, and substituted it with japanned deal. He then charged ‘For making a Table [£] 2-15-0’ from the original top (NT 1139748). It is possible that a cabinet-maker like Nix brought these carved gesso table frames up to date by adding lacquer tops. Another example of this type of ‘modernisation’ during the 4th Earl’s tenure is a gilt-gesso stand, circa 1730, which had been made specifically for a kingwood brass-bound strong box, circa1675 (ibid., fig. 283), and the addition of replacement supports to a pair of torchere stands, circa 1675, probably supplied by John Hele in 1741 (ibid., fig. 284; NT 1139861.1, 2). A further possibility is William Bradshaw (1700-75), to whom is attributed the large suite of seat-furniture covered with Spitalfields ‘Genoa velvet’ intended for the Queen’s Bedchamber (NT 1139879). However, there is other ‘golden’ 18th-century furniture in the house such as the splendid gilded X-frame suite of seat-furniture, circa 1735-40, presently in the Voluary, which cannot be ascribed to any one cabinet/chair-maker.
There is no surviving inventory for Ham between 1728 and 1844, but the 1844 inventory probably records many of the 4th Earl’s arrangements (ibid., p. 289), and does include this impressive pair of tables.
Ronald A. Lee
These tables were probably purchased from Ham House in the early 1950s by the antiques dealer Ronald A. Lee (1913-2000), who dealt primarily in English furniture, clocks and works of art. A close relationship existed between Ronald Lee and Sir Lionel Tollemache, 4th Baronet (1854-1952) and his son, Sir Cecil Lionel, 5th Baronet (1886-1969), who had jointly donated Ham House to the National Trust and sold its contents to the Government/Victoria & Albert Musem in 1949. Lee purchased at auction Ormeley Lodge, Ham, part of the Ham estate, a few hundred yards from Ham House, from where he conducted his antique business. Lee also bought a large number of artworks from the Ham and Buckminster Park collections, the latter, the Tollemache seat in Lincolnshire, demolished in 1952 to be replaced by a smaller house (ibid., p. 386). Lee’s final list of Tollemache purchases came to £3,306, which included 18th-century furniture and, intriguingly, a ‘Pair of gesso tables and pair of mirrors £500.0.0’; the former almost certainly the present tables (ibid., p. 395, f/n 50). Further evidence of good relations between the antiques dealer and the Tollemache family exists: from 8-24 July 1954, Lee held a loan exhibition of fine and decorative art at Ormeley Lodge entitled A loan exhibition of masterpieces of British art and craftsmanship: at Ormeley Lodge, Ham Common, Surrey, opened by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother, and for which Sir Cecil loaned exhibits although these tables were not featured. Lee also rescued the Ham manuscripts previously stored in the Ham stables and destined for the bonfire and arranged their safe transfer to the Surrey History Centre (ibid., p. 386).
Lee probably sold the present tables in circa 1952-55 to Frank Partridge who in turn sold them to Sir Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon (1897-1977), and his second wife, Clarissa. Claude Partridge was clearly enamored of the tables and tried to acquire them back from the Edens in 1957 (AP 26/57/7) with Anthony Eden responding: 'I am sorry but I do not want to part with these. I like them better than any other piece of furniture I possess, and I am grateful to you for the chance to own them' (ibid., 26/57/8)
The Edens at Downing Street
Eden served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1955 until his resignation in 1957. In May 1955, correspondence between the Controller of Supplies (the Ministry of Works) for 10 Downing Street, the official residence and office of the British Prime Minister, shows that Eden intended to bring some of his own furniture to Downing Street (PRO Work 12/291., mss. 4). Lady Avon was an exigent and extravagant patroness, actively involved in choosing suitable historic furnishings for Downing Street, and turned to the great Kentian/Walpolian house, Houghton, and also Holkham Hall, both in Norfolk, for ‘period accuracy’ (ibid., mss. 49). In July 1955, Clarissa requested from the Ministry of Works that Ralph Edwards, the legendary furniture historian, former Keeper of the Department of Woodwork at the Victoria & Albert Museum, and Advisor on works of art to the Historic Buildings Council of England and Wales, be consulted as advisor in sourcing furniture from dealers and auction for Downing Street (ibid., mss. 14). Interestingly, Edwards had been instrumental in the negotiations for Ham on behalf of the Government/Victoria & Albert Museum with Sir Lionel and Sir Cecil Tollemache.
In 1955, the present tables had evidently been sent from the Edens' private collection to Downing Street when they were photographed in the ‘Green Drawing Room’ at 10 Downing Street, London (private collection). Furthermore, a memo dated March 1956, shows that the Edens had by this date introduced ‘their own two gilt tables which were a wedding present from Sir Anthony’s Leamington constituents' to supplement furniture in the ‘Corner Drawing Room’ (Boudoir) (ibid., mss. 99). In 1961, the tables were photographed in the ‘Drawing Room’ at Fyfield Manor, Wiltshire, the Eden country seat, by Country Life where they are described as being from Ham (Hussey, op. cit., p. 753).
Lionel Tollemache, 4th Earl of Dysart (1708-70)
This taste was undoubtedly inherited by Elizabeth’s grandson and heir, Lionel Tollemache, 4th Earl of Dysart, styled Lord Huntingtower from 1712-27. The 4th Earl was a patron to many London cabinet-makers, and commissioned varied and sophisticated furniture adding to the 1670s lacquer and japanned furniture at Ham, including a Chinese lacquer domed top coffer on stand, c. 1750, and a japanned tripod tea table with circular tray top, c. 1750 (ed. Rowell, op. cit., p. 280). Purchasing new furniture and repairing existing pieces at Ham began in c. 1729 under the 4th Earl’s patronage, the year of his marriage to Lady Grace Carteret, an amateur artist and decorator of furniture in her own right. At the same time, extensive work was underway at other Dysart seats, Helmingham Hall, Suffolk, and in London, at 7 Savile Row (1739-44), 6 Whitehall Yard (from 1744-50) and 4 New Burlington Street (1748-58).
The maker of the tables offered here cannot be firmly identified. They were probably made in circa 1720, and are thus, seemingly, too early for the 4th Earl, who favoured fashionable, contemporary-style furniture. However, one possible candidate, patronised by the 4th Earl and working at Ham, is the London cabinet-maker George Nix (1691-1751) - although his surviving bills do not list these tables. Between June 1729 and April 1734, Nix supplied 150 works to the 4th Earl amounting to £430 13s 6d (ibid., p. 283). The 4th Earl was committed to the care of his inherited collection, and Nix also made repairs and alterations, that included working with lacquer at Ham. Nix removed the lacquer top from the Japanese lacquer cabinet, itself dating to circa 1670, in the Long Gallery, and substituted it with japanned deal. He then charged ‘For making a Table [£] 2-15-0’ from the original top (NT 1139748). It is possible that a cabinet-maker like Nix brought these carved gesso table frames up to date by adding lacquer tops. Another example of this type of ‘modernisation’ during the 4th Earl’s tenure is a gilt-gesso stand, circa 1730, which had been made specifically for a kingwood brass-bound strong box, circa1675 (ibid., fig. 283), and the addition of replacement supports to a pair of torchere stands, circa 1675, probably supplied by John Hele in 1741 (ibid., fig. 284; NT 1139861.1, 2). A further possibility is William Bradshaw (1700-75), to whom is attributed the large suite of seat-furniture covered with Spitalfields ‘Genoa velvet’ intended for the Queen’s Bedchamber (NT 1139879). However, there is other ‘golden’ 18th-century furniture in the house such as the splendid gilded X-frame suite of seat-furniture, circa 1735-40, presently in the Voluary, which cannot be ascribed to any one cabinet/chair-maker.
There is no surviving inventory for Ham between 1728 and 1844, but the 1844 inventory probably records many of the 4th Earl’s arrangements (ibid., p. 289), and does include this impressive pair of tables.
Ronald A. Lee
These tables were probably purchased from Ham House in the early 1950s by the antiques dealer Ronald A. Lee (1913-2000), who dealt primarily in English furniture, clocks and works of art. A close relationship existed between Ronald Lee and Sir Lionel Tollemache, 4th Baronet (1854-1952) and his son, Sir Cecil Lionel, 5th Baronet (1886-1969), who had jointly donated Ham House to the National Trust and sold its contents to the Government/Victoria & Albert Musem in 1949. Lee purchased at auction Ormeley Lodge, Ham, part of the Ham estate, a few hundred yards from Ham House, from where he conducted his antique business. Lee also bought a large number of artworks from the Ham and Buckminster Park collections, the latter, the Tollemache seat in Lincolnshire, demolished in 1952 to be replaced by a smaller house (ibid., p. 386). Lee’s final list of Tollemache purchases came to £3,306, which included 18th-century furniture and, intriguingly, a ‘Pair of gesso tables and pair of mirrors £500.0.0’; the former almost certainly the present tables (ibid., p. 395, f/n 50). Further evidence of good relations between the antiques dealer and the Tollemache family exists: from 8-24 July 1954, Lee held a loan exhibition of fine and decorative art at Ormeley Lodge entitled A loan exhibition of masterpieces of British art and craftsmanship: at Ormeley Lodge, Ham Common, Surrey, opened by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother, and for which Sir Cecil loaned exhibits although these tables were not featured. Lee also rescued the Ham manuscripts previously stored in the Ham stables and destined for the bonfire and arranged their safe transfer to the Surrey History Centre (ibid., p. 386).
Lee probably sold the present tables in circa 1952-55 to Frank Partridge who in turn sold them to Sir Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon (1897-1977), and his second wife, Clarissa. Claude Partridge was clearly enamored of the tables and tried to acquire them back from the Edens in 1957 (AP 26/57/7) with Anthony Eden responding: 'I am sorry but I do not want to part with these. I like them better than any other piece of furniture I possess, and I am grateful to you for the chance to own them' (ibid., 26/57/8)
The Edens at Downing Street
Eden served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1955 until his resignation in 1957. In May 1955, correspondence between the Controller of Supplies (the Ministry of Works) for 10 Downing Street, the official residence and office of the British Prime Minister, shows that Eden intended to bring some of his own furniture to Downing Street (PRO Work 12/291., mss. 4). Lady Avon was an exigent and extravagant patroness, actively involved in choosing suitable historic furnishings for Downing Street, and turned to the great Kentian/Walpolian house, Houghton, and also Holkham Hall, both in Norfolk, for ‘period accuracy’ (ibid., mss. 49). In July 1955, Clarissa requested from the Ministry of Works that Ralph Edwards, the legendary furniture historian, former Keeper of the Department of Woodwork at the Victoria & Albert Museum, and Advisor on works of art to the Historic Buildings Council of England and Wales, be consulted as advisor in sourcing furniture from dealers and auction for Downing Street (ibid., mss. 14). Interestingly, Edwards had been instrumental in the negotiations for Ham on behalf of the Government/Victoria & Albert Museum with Sir Lionel and Sir Cecil Tollemache.
In 1955, the present tables had evidently been sent from the Edens' private collection to Downing Street when they were photographed in the ‘Green Drawing Room’ at 10 Downing Street, London (private collection). Furthermore, a memo dated March 1956, shows that the Edens had by this date introduced ‘their own two gilt tables which were a wedding present from Sir Anthony’s Leamington constituents' to supplement furniture in the ‘Corner Drawing Room’ (Boudoir) (ibid., mss. 99). In 1961, the tables were photographed in the ‘Drawing Room’ at Fyfield Manor, Wiltshire, the Eden country seat, by Country Life where they are described as being from Ham (Hussey, op. cit., p. 753).