English furniture 1720-1880: Michael Pick reviews the recent highlights of a market where provenance, a designer's or maker's name and a dash of the unusual or intriguing are all eagerly sought after, and in combination make for record prices

Apollo, June, 2005 by Michael Pick

In each area of the art market we have come to expect that the best examples are those now most in demand. The middle-ground of good brown English furniture is still sought after, but is the rare and fine that now more than ever commands the highest price. This is a reflection of the comment made after the Sotheby's sale in 2004 of the Vermeer Young Woman Seated at the Virginals, that a recent discovery and a new attribution raised its desirability in line with Sotheby's successful sale of the Rubens Massacre of the Innocents for a record price in 2002.

In English furniture, the sale of the Doris Duke collections at Christie's in New York in July 2004 gave collectors and decorators the chance to acquire items not seen on the market for a considerable time, in many instances for some seventy or eighty years. Raising funds for a charitable institution gave the auction another cachet, but in the end the quality of some of the major lots was most important. A George III overmantel mirror (Fig. 2) that formed part of the famous suite of bedroom furniture from Badminton House, the major parts of which are in the Victoria and Albert Museum, was estimated at $250,000/450,000 and achieved a record price of $1,575,500. The remarkable original condition of the piece and the fine rococo-chinoiserie decoration proclaim this to be an outstanding example of the period.

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The same sale yielded another star lot evocative of time and place: a pair of rosewood bedside steps-cabinets with restrained gilt decoration and marble tops. Stamped by Morel and Hughes and bearing the brands of Windsor Castle inventory marks, they evoke the sumptuous nature of George IV'S remodelling of Windsor Castle. They are now for sale in London.

Provenance remains important to the serious collector. Although last year's Woburn Abbey sale by Christie's of redundant furniture provided a rich feast for decorators, amongst much that was mundane were some serious pieces. These included a mid-Georgian mahogany serpentine fronted chest of drawers with a rich colour, which fetched 20,315 [pounds sterling], and a George IV library cabinet commissioned by the 6th Duke of Bedford. In a style derived from designs by C.H. Tatham and Thomas Hope, it bore its maker's label on the underside--'R.J. 'Newton/upholsterer's/&c/63 Wardour Street/Soho London/Appraisers Funerals Performed'--and made 21,510 [pounds sterling].

Well-designed and well-constructed library furniture is as sought after as ever. A dividing George II mahogany octagonal library table (Fig. 1) based on a design by William Kent for Lord Burlington, sold at Sothebys New York in April 2004, is a rare example of the form made by the London cabinetmaker John Boson (d. 1743) and was designed to be used when desired as two pier tables. Made of the best mahogany and with restrained carving, it exemplifies its period and fetched $400,000; it is now for sale in London.

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Similarly, Sotheby's sale of contents from Venn House on 8 December 2004 contained a remarkable mahogany writing table of the Regency period attributed to John Bellerby of Micklegate, York. An unusual example of a provincial maker achieving a London finish, the lions masks and feet are particularly finely carved: Bellerby undoubtedly used George Smith's A Collection of Designs for Household Furniture (1808) as his inspiration for this table. From the same sale came a splendidly shaped pair of bombe-fronted serpentine-shaped commodes attributed to John Linnell. The marquetry tops contain an evocative song sheet of the period and the doors open to reveal drawers.

Christie's New York displayed the added value of provenance in their sale of a pair of George III gilt and cream decorated mirrors on 14 October 2004. To a design by Matthias Lock and formerly at Underby Hall, Northumberland, the mirrors were thought to have been made for the house in 1744. They were given further approval by their inclusion in the retirement sale of the celebrated dealer Arthur Vernay in New York in 1940.

Although there is a steady demand for the classics of English furniture in all categories, it is the unusual which most captures the collectors imagination. Dreweatt Neate's sale of 21 January 2004 contained the remarkable tour-de-force of the Roman micro-mosaic master Michelangelo Barberi (Fig. 4). Made to his own design, the circular tabletop depicts the four ages of Rome with exquisite detail and striking colour. It was acquired by a member of the family from whom it came for sale and is one of only four examples known, one of which is in the Gilbert Collection and the other in the Hermitage. However, this example is uniquely supported by an extravagant base of gilt and ormolu based on antique Roman design. It is for sale in London for 450,000 [pounds sterling] and should form the basis of a complete decorative scheme.

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The taste for eclectic furniture can scarcely be excelled by the architectural nature of a piece from a sale of works from the late Sir Paul Getty's collection at Christie's in November 2004. Designed by William Burges for his office, the polychrome-decorated cabinet has a pitched roof of medieval inspiration, crowned with finials (Fig. 3). With its echoes of Burges's later design for Cardiff Castle, the striking design of the front is based upon the playful heraldic device of alternating patterned rectangles that form the cupboard fronts, but the message of the paintings on the sides is clear: they depict Industry and Idleness, War and Peace, Night and Day. For the tycoon collector of today the piece is as inspirational as it was when new in about 1860. (Intriguingly it was re-made in 1868, as the inscription makes apparent.) It realised 274,050 [pounds sterling], a price that bears a clear message: antique English furniture continues to delight the collector and fulfil a function.