The mysterious Mr Cuenot: Tessa Murdoch presents new evidence about the identity of the carver who provided ornament and furniture for the 9th Duke and Duchess of Norfolk's London house, unveiled to rapturous acclaim in 1756

Apollo, June, 2006 by Tessa Murdoch

(27) Orlando Rock discovered the stamp DL on one of the cast vine leaves on the right-hand pier table in the drawing room, to the left of its central apron. This may provide a clue to the identity of the supplier of the brass figures and decoration.

(28) This mahogany centre table, with concertina frame, was as exhibited by Pelham Galleries at the Grossvenor House Fair in 2001. It was published by Anthony Coleridge, 'A Perfect Puzzle of a Table', County Life, 3 June 2004. pp. 160-161. It is now in the Art Institute of Chicago.

(29) ACA, MD 18/1 f.4; Jacob Simon, Tiff Art of the Picture Frame: Artists Patrons and the Framing of Portraits in Britain, exh. cat., National Portrait Gallery, London, 1996, no. 35, p. 159.

(30) ACA MD 18/1, fol. 4. For the Green Middle Room Cuenot charged 20 [pounds sterling] 3s 'To making, carving & guilding taro picture frames' and 9 [pounds sterling] 6s to 'new guilding two other whole lengths'; for the Red Room 18 [pounds sterling] 3s 2d for 'two picture frames with heads, shells, festoons etc the same as the green middle Room'.

(31) ACA, MD 18/1 fol. 2.

(32) Illustrated in Fitz-Gerald, op. cit., plate 12.

(33) This was a worthy successor to the tabernacle made by the goldsmith Charles Kandler in ormolu for the 8th Duke of Norfolk's private chapel at Arundel Castle in 1730: Peter Cameron, 'Henry Jernegan, the Kandlers and the client who changed his mind', Silver Society Journal, vol. VIII, pp. 487-501. The 'gradains' (gradines) art: tiered platforms which flank the tabernacle and provide support for candlesticks; the 'reposoir' was used for reserving the consecrated host between Maundy Thursday and celebration at Mass on Easter Sunday.

(34) ACA, IN 54, fol. 45, 'A Tabernacle 4 Steps & 10 Candlesticks (gilt) in Wood, An Ivory Crucifix set in Brass'.

(35) I am grateful to my colleague Greg Sullivan for this information, which will appear in Ingrid Roscoe (ed.), M.G. Sullivan and Emma Hardy, Dictionary of Sculptors in Britain, 16601851, London and New Haven, forthcoming, 2007.

(36) National Archives, PCC PROB 11/883. Fitz Gerald (op. cit., p. 29) mentions Francois Cuenot (active 1638-70), who became sculptor to Charles Emmanuel II of Savoy in 1660 and whose son Pierre-Francois succeeded him. Fitz-Gerald cites S. Lami, Dictionnaire des sculpteurs de l'ecole francaise sous le regne de Louis xiv, Paris, 1906. p. 139. There is no proof that lean Antoine was related to these earlier sculptors, but the connection with the Savoy dynasty, with its capital in Turin which was Borra's base. suggests that Borra and Cuenot may have known of each other before working together in London.

(37) International Genealogical Index.

(38) Quoted by Roscoe, op. cit.

(39) For Duffour. see Jacob Simon, 'New Light on Joseph Goupy (1689-1760)', APOLLO, vol. CXXXIX, no. 139 (February 1994), pp. 15-18. Joseph Duffour married Mary Ann, daughter of Goupy in the Portuguese Embassy Chapel in August 1746.

(40) For Chesterfield House, see Roger White 'Isaac Ware and Chesterfield House' in Charles Hind (ed.), The Rococo in England: A Symposium. London. 1986.