Description
An Irish 18th century mahogany secretaire-cabinet, the scrolling broken pediment cresting carved with rosettes and surmounted by an eagle with outstretched wings,above a pair of mirrored doors enclosing three plain adjustable shelves, above two drawers, the baize lined secretaire-drawer enclosing a fitted interior,above a kneehole with a drawer and three recessed graduated drawers, flanked by three graduated drawers to either side, on bracket feet.
Note: The handles are replacements.
Irish, circa 1760
Height: 97 in; (246.4 cm)
Width: 41 in; (104.1 cm)
Depth: 23 1/2 in; (59.6 cm)
Provenance:
Lady Somerset, Belfast, Northern Ireland
Literature:
The Knight of Glin and James Peil, Irish Furniture: Woodwork and carving in Ireland from the Earliest times to the Act of Union, New Haven and London, 2007 P.120 (fig.163) for an almost identical cabinet.
Case Furniture
On 8 December 1764 Lady Elizabeth Cobbe recorded in her account book a payment of £11 17s 6d for a 'Bureau with Glass Doors'. This is undoubtedly the handsome mahogany secretaire-cabinet (fig.163), attributable again to Christopher Hearn, with a palladian scrolled pediment centered by an eagle, now in the back drawing-room at Newbridge. Probably originally made for a bedroom apartment it would have combined the uses of clothes- chest, writing-bureau, dressing-table and cabinet for books and documents, whist its mirrored doors would have served as a pier glass.
The Newbridge secretaire-cabinet is one of a known group that are all very similar in design and construction, including one formerly at Adare Manor, Co.Limerick, one at Birr Castle and three that have passed through the saleroom.
Rory Rogers +353 (0)87 221 3741
John Carroll +44 (0)7802 345 529
Email: info@rogersandcarroll.com
AN IRISH GEORGE II MAHOGANY SECRETAIRE-CABINET
(Rollover image above for magnification)
