CHARLES LOCKE EASTLAKE (1836-1906)
DRESSER, CIRCA 1870
oak, with brass fittings, carved inscription COMEDE CUM LAETITIA CIBUM TUUM ET BIBE ANIMO HILARI VINUM
152cm wide, 205cm high, 64cm deep
Literature: Eastlake, C. L. Hints on Household Taste, Longmans, Green & Co., 1878, pl. XI, where a similar ‘Dining-room sideboard’ is illustrated;Cooper, J. Victorian & Edwardian Furniture & Interiors, London, 1987, p. 108, pl. 241 (design drawing illustrating a similar sideboard).Note: Whilst Eastlake did not directly execute furniture himself, an engraving of this design was published in his Hints on Household Taste and has subsequently been reproduced in Jeremy Cooper’s Victorian & Edwardian Furniture & Interiors. Eastlake advocated simple furniture that was geometric in form with a strong preference for rectangular and square elements and gentle curves. He was reacting against the decorative excesses he felt were widely evidenced at the Great Exhibition of 1851. He also promoted the use of solid wood without elaborate inlays and executed using traditional methods that recalled the work of earlier English makers of the Gothic period. He recommended the use of inspirational mottos on furniture and in this instance the sideboard bears the Latin inscription COMEDE CUM LAETITIA CIBUM TUUM ET BIBE ANIMO HILARI VINUM, which can be translated as 'Eat your bread with joy and drink wine with a cheerful spirit'.