Printed from Woolley & Wallis

Description

A FRENCH EMPIRE MAHOGANY AND ORMOLU MOUNTED SECRETAIRE A ABATTANT

C.1815

the mottled marble top (broken) above a frieze drawer mounted with two opposing seated and crouching Bacchantes with a nearby Bacchic boy tending to a central wicker basket replete with vine leaves and grapes, flanked by two further boys, a leopard and a ram, with protruding swan form and laurel wreath mounted angles, the drawer with a handwritten paper label inscribed 'Bureau belongs to... Angerstein Lancelot Smythies... given (?) to (?)... him on his 21st Birthday by Georgiana Angerstein, his Grandmother, and given to her by his father-in-law, William Angerstein, it was in his bedroom at Weeting Hall, Brandon, Norfolk' above a hinged fall enclosing a burr elm veneered interior with one long frieze drawer over one shelf flanked by mounted engine turned Doric columns, with one central deep drawer and four short drawers below, flanked by engaged columns each mounted with a stiff leaf and beaded acanthus cast capital and with palmette cast baluster bases, above a pair of doors mounted sans traverse with an arrow dividing an olive leaf wreath, enclosing three long drawers

143.5cm high, 97cm wide, 43.5cm deep

Provenance

The offered lot originally belonged to William Angerstein who was the uncle of John Julius Angerstein (1735-1823). The latter's collection, which was purchased by the government in 1824, formed the core of the National Gallery, in London.

Dreweatt Neate, Donnington Priory, Donnington, 6th November 2002, Yuki House and Studio Sale, lot 69.
Thereafter, property of a private UK collector.