Collection / Cabinets / Sideboards
19772
A Matched Pair of Drawing Room Cabinet of the Aesthetic Period attributed to Jackson & Graham
A Matched Pair of Drawing Room Cabinet of the Aesthetic Period attributed to Jackson & Graham
Dimensions: H: 39.5 in / 100 cm | W: 80.5 in / 204 cm | D: 21.5 in / 54 cm
19772
Constructed using, befitting the aims of the Aesthetic Period, the very fine and rare woods, including a beautifully grained coromandel as the ground wood, and several specimen woods, along with ivory employed in the astonishingly precise marquetry inlays; of bow ended arc-en-arbalette form, rising from a plinth base, having a mirrored centre door flanked by inlaid columns enclosing a shelved interior, and with shelved open ends; the whole is extensively inlaid, yet with great restraint and refinement, in designs drawn from the masterwork of Owen Jones (1809-1874) (qv), 'The Grammar of Ornament', first published in 1856. The design motifs employed in the palmette, anthemion and acroteria inlay works have extensive concordances to the drawings in Jones's book, (qv)
Circa 1870
A matched cabinet having the same form, design, and execution is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (accession no. 1983.121). The two cabinets formed a pair and were reputedly designed for No. 16 Carlton House Terrace for Alfred Morrison, and designed by Owen Jones, best known as co-advisor on the interiors of the Crystal Palace for the Great Exhibition of 1851, where the firm of Jackson & Graham also exhibited. Of significant importance, the institution's curator, James Parker, asserts that "the extreme skill of the marquetry work, equal to the finest examples of this technique dating from the eighteenth century, together with the effect of sober richness conveyed by its proportions and decoration, qualify this cabinet as a tour de force of high Victorian furniture production," as noted in their Notable Acquisitions, 1982-1983 on pp. 34-35 and illustrated on the latter.
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