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291: A FINE AND UNUSUAL GEORGE III ROLLED PAPER AND SATINWOOD DISPLAY CABINE

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A FINE AND UNUSUAL GEORGE III ROLLED PAPER AND SATINWOOD DISPLAY CABINET CIRCA 1780


MEASUREMENTS


measurements
height 36 in.; width 42 in.; depth 23 in.

alternate measurements
91.4 cm; 106.7 cm; 58.4 cm



DESCRIPTION


the frieze bearing a Royal Coat of Arms, the rim with the initials "A.F.G.", the interior with a paper label inscribed "Given to Lady Anne Fitzmaurice by her brother Lord Kerry on her marriage to Maurice Fitzgerald, Knight of Kerry in 1764," with chalked number to the back 11861.




PROVENANCE



Presented by Lord Kerry to his sister Lady Anne Fitzmaurice on the occasion of her marriage to Maurice Fitzgerald, Knight of Kerry

With Temple Williams Ltd., London, 1962

With F. Partridge & Sons, New York, 1968, by whom sold Parke-Bernet Galleries, Inc., New York, March 29-30, 1968, lot 429

EXHIBITED



C. I. N. O. A. International Art Treasures Exhibition, 1962, The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Temple Williams Ltd., London, no. 117, illustrated in the Catalogue, pl. 83

CATALOGUE NOTE



The art of adorning objects and creating with Filigree or rolled paper work was practiced by young ladies in England from the 17th century to the early 19th century, The New Ladies Magazine publishing in 1786-1787 a series of sixty patterns for rolled paperwork, describing the practice as able to ‘afford an amusement to the female mind capable of the most pleasing and extensive variety’ (Walkling, op. cit.). As with small needlework pictures and boxes of the same period, the art seems to have been a purely amateur practice, although in France, Germany and Italy, such decoration is frequently found ornamenting reliquaries and religious prints which were probably professionally made by nuns for commercial purposes.

Imitating the same patterns devised by the silversmith using precious metal, the color-stained and gilded paper allowed amateurs to create colorful works of art with less costly materials. As with contemporary needlework, the pieces are found both with dates and initials, references to the technique also being found in literature. In 1683 Samuel Pepys speaks of a basket made of paper filigree and it is frequently mentioned in the correspondence of Mrs. Delany (1700-1788). In the 1790s, Maria Holroyd, afterwards the first Lady Stanley of Alderley, wrote in her Journal ‘I have learnt the Filagree work this winter and have done a Box in purple, green and gold for Mamma, It is dirty work, the dye of the paper comes off when wet with gum’, and in Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility (1811) Elinor Dashwood offers ‘to roll the papers’ for Lucy Steele who was making ‘a little filigree basket’.

In 1791, Charles Elliott (1752-d. 1832) the cabinet maker and upholder of Shepard Street who had been appointed to the position of ‘Royal Upholsterer and Cabinetmaker’ in 1783, supplied Princess Elizabeth, daughter of George III, with a box prepared for decorating with filigree work. The box had ebony moldings, lock and key and was lined inside and out. Elliott also supplied fifteen ounces of different filigree papers and an ounce of gold paper. The latter was probably supplied by a specialist such as the stationer and printer William Heath of Well Court, Queen Street Cheapside who is recorded in various trade directories circa 1800. A surviving handbill lists a number of specialist paper products including ‘Fillagree in Colours, Plain /….in Colours, Gilt / …White do. …. / Card do. / Frosting of different fine Colours, for Fillagree work / A strong Cement for do. / Real Pearl Frosting / Speckles’. In addition Heath also supplied ‘Tea Caddies’ and ‘Bottle Stands’, obviously intended to be decorated by an amateur artist.

Besides these small articles, a small group of furniture decorated overall with filigree work survives of which the present cabinet is a notable example. As with the box supplied to Princess Elizabeth noted above, the frame of this and the other recorded pieces was almost certainly made by a professional cabinet maker, although the decoration is probably amateur work. Bearing the arms and motto of Fitzgerald, Knights of Kerry and worked with the initials A F G, a manuscript paper attached to the interior is inscribed in 19th century hand ‘Given to Lady Anne Fitzmaurice, by her brother Lord Kerry on her marriage to Maurice Fitzgerald, Knight of Kerry in 1764’. Lady Anne was the only daughter of William, 2nd Earl of Kerry. The cabinet was originally designed for the display of objects and when in the possession of Messrs. Temple Williams it contained a collection of Sèvres porcelain. These include a cabinet on stand inset with painted prints and silk panels in the Leverhulme Collection (Macquoid, op. cit), a cabinet stand with an architectural pediment now in the Victoria and Albert Museum (Antique Dealers’ Fair, op. cit.), and a small cabinet on a table stand formerly at Pelling Place, Old Windsor, Berkshire (Grosvenor House, op. cit.).

Percy Macquoid, The Leverhulme Art Collections, III, Furniture Tapestry and Needlework, 1928, p. 88, no. 397, pl. 98

The Magazine Antiques, July, 1929, ‘Rolled Paper Work.’ Guy Cadogan Rothery, pp. 21-24

Country Life, May 5, 1944, ‘Rolled Paper-Work’, Bea Howe, pp. 778-779

The Antique Dealers Fair and Exhibition, 1959, ‘Catalogue’. H. Blairman & Sons, London, stand 38, p. 20

June Field, Collecting Georgian and Victorian Crafts, 1973, pp. 11-15

Gillian Walkling, Tea Caddies, 1985

The Grosvenor House Antiques Fair, 1986, ‘Catalogue’, Eric Van Vredenburgh, London, stand 7, p. 117

Monique Riccardi-Cubitt, The Art of the Cabinet, 1992, p. 143, cabinet on stand

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