An addition to Chippendale's oeuvre

Magazine Antiques, June, 1996 by Anthony Coleridge

Let us consider the evidence for associating the secretary in Plate I with this account book entry, first by examining the secretary itself. The design is based on the French secretaire a abattant, a type rarely found in English furniture of the period. The form became very popular in France when rooms in the private family apartments tended to become smaller. These pieces of furniture were intended for ladies' use, and it is interesting that Chippendale so described the piece under discussion. It is worthwhile comparing the secretary in Plate I with a French secretaire of similar date (Pl. V). Both are veneered with Chinese lacquer panels, but the French example has ormolu mounts rather than gilded wood enrichments. The French secretaire has a marble slab top, while the top of the English secretary is veneered with lacquer. The principal differences in design occur below the fall front. The French example has two doors that open to reveal a coffre-fort (strong box), while the English secretary has one wide door that opens onto three long drawers.

The secretary in Plate I is veneered with wafer-thin panels of Chinese lacquer almost certainly cut from an eight- or twelve-leaf screen rather than a Chinese cabinet. It is particularly instructive to compare the color and freshness of the panels on the front of the three drawers in the lower section to the exterior panels. Having seldom been exposed to light, the drawer fronts are startling in their pristine condition (see Pl. II). The friezes and borders are decorated with English japanning, the former depicting a basket of flowers and Chinese land- and riverscapes, and the latter, harebells suspended from lambrequins at the top and a band of unusual, bifurcated stylized leaves at the bottom.

Chippendale had japanners on his staff, as can be seen from a plan of his premises at 60 Saint Martin's Lane, London, which formed part of the insurance policy drawn up by the Sun Insurance Company in 1755.(2) The plan included a "Drying-room with stone floor for charcoals, containing a japanning stove and German stove." It appears that the japanned decoration on his furniture was dried in this room. The fact that the client supplied the cabinetmaker with his own panels of lacquer appears not to have been uncommon. George Montaga, for example, wrote to Horace Walpole on March 12, 1766:

I will take my corporal oath that three parts of the japan you gave Langlois to make into commodes is still there, and so will Mr. Chute. He carried me to see his things and there it was flowing about the Rooms in planks and in the staircase, 'tis a burning shame.(3)

Langlois was presumably the immigrant French ebeniste Pierre Langlois (d. 1767), who leased premises on Tottenham Court Road, London, about 1760. He was celebrated for making marquetry and lacquer case furniture in the French taste. Walpole and John Chute of the Vyne, Hampshire, were both clients of Langlois.

In his invoice Chippendale describes the secretary as "part Gilt," referring to the gilded wood decoration the cabinetmaker supplied. The front and back corners are mounted with strips of carved and gilded wood in an interlaced chain design. A band of carved and gilded guilloche divides the fall front and door and the side panels. At the angles of the frieze are oval gilded paterae, and the unusual legs are in the shape of fluted trumpets resting on ebonized block feet with gilded roundels. The use of oil (as opposed to water) gilding is a further refinement.

The fall front, which has a leather writing surface, encloses an unusual arrangement of a large central recess surrounded by eleven drawers opened with beaded ring handles and surmounted by six pigeonholes that are joined by fretwork lambrequins (see Pl. III). The writing flap opens and closes with a finely balanced mechanism often employed in France but seldom in England. Instead of the customary compass hinges, iron hinges screwed into the sides of the fall front support lead counterweights concealed in the sides of the cabinet. The position of the lock to the lower door is also unusual, for instead of being on the left, opposite the hinges, it is in the center at the top. Thus the three keyhole escutcheons are in a vertical line, which is aesthetically more pleasing.

The secretary in Plate I may be compared to another attributed to Chippendale - the satinwood secretary in Plate IV, which was not only included in the 1795 inventory taken after the death of Edwin Lascelles, but is still at Harewood House. The two pieces are identical in form, construction, and measurements. The fall front opens by means of balanced weights and the three key escutcheons are in a vertical line. The interiors are arranged identically, in what is a rare and unusual configuration.

A second piece that can be compared to the secretary is the dressing commode shown in Plate VIII, for which Chippendale billed Lascelles thirty pounds on November 12, 1773, describing it as "A large Commode with folding Doors vaneer'd with your own Japann with additions Japann'd to match with a dressing Drawer &c fine locks."(4) The commode, made for the State Bedchamber at Harewood House, is now in a private collection. Chippendale's "additions Japann'd to match" include a lower border of bifurcated leaves so similar to its counterpart on the secretary that both were surely made in the same japanning room.