A GEORGE III MAHOGANY CHEST OF DRAWERS

ATTRIBUTED TO ALEXANDER PETER, THIRD QUARTER 18TH CENTURY

Details

The rectangular moulded crossbanded top with boxwood stringing above two short and three graduated ash-lined drawers on a moulded base on shaped bracket feet
36 3/4 in. (95.3 cm.) high; 42 in. (106.5 cm.) wide; 21 1/2 in. (54.5 cm.) deep
Lot Essay

The present chest relates closely to those supplied in 1759 to Dumfries house and attributed to Alexander Peter, whose contribution at Dumfries was analysed by Rufus Bird in 'Who was the "Dumfries House Cabinet-Maker"?', Christie's sale catalogue, 13 July 2007, Vol. II, pp. 7-11.
In 1758 when the Earl of Dumfries embarked upon the decoration of his newly-built mansion, Alexander Peter was already well established in the cabinet trade. He had worked for Lord Dumfries as early as 1745 at his Edinburgh townhouse on Castlehill and was already engaged at Dumfries House in 1757. He was a highly talented craftsman who was apprenticed to James Brownhill in 1713, achieving journeyman status in less than five years, and apparently with a highly developed sense for the finer points of interior decoration. Peter took his own apprentice in 1733, one William Mathie who became a skilled carver; the two enjoyed a long and productive partnership in business, their skills complementing each other. In 1759-60 Peter supplied a large quantity of the plainer mahogany (and elm) furnishings for Dumfries House, and thus would have been fully exposed to the magnificent furniture being delivered at the same time by the celebrated London cabinet-maker Thomas Chippendale. Not that Peter's furniture was inferior, it was of extremely high quality, and shared many common stylistic features with the work of the 'Master'. This is no surprise as Chippendale's The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director had been available in Edinburgh very soon after first publication in 1753 so the designs would have been very familiar to both craftsmen and patrons.
Given this close correlation, it is not surprising that the present chest exhibits the restrained characteristics commonly found in Thomas Chippendale's work, combined with constructional elements commonly found in Scottish vernacular furniture, such as ash-lined drawers, as seen in the present lot.