Built in 1860-1862 by Edward Bickerton Evans to the design of E.W. Elmslie, Whitbourne Hall has been described as a “remarkable High Victorian statement of the Greek Revival” (S. Jervis, ‘Whitbourne Hall, Herefordshire: Home of Mr and Mrs Edward Evans’, Country Life, 20 March 1975, p. 701). This was due in large part to the interior decoration, which was supplied by the painter, decorators, and upholstered Cowtan & Co., with surviving bills dating from 1866 and 1872. The present lot is described in an invoice from Cowtan & Sons as 'A very handsome Marqueterie and inlaid Cabinet in Thuya, Walnut and purple woods richly mounted with gilt ormolu, plate glass in doors, inside lined with Utrecht velvet £145.' (C. Payne, British Furniture 1820-1920: The Luxury Market, Woodbridge, 2023, p. 243). As the firm did not produce furniture themselves, it is believed that this work was sub-contracted and supplied by the well-established Holland & Sons.
Typical of the historical revivalist trends of the mid-nineteenth century, the overarching scheme of the house was not only Grecian, but specifically ‘Adam revival’ with particularly attention paid to the library and drawing room in this taste. The present credenza was originally a part of the drawing room en suite with several other commissioned works including an oval centre table, an occasional table, a sofa table, and a writing table, all designed with ram’s head monopods. The drawing room furniture remained largely in situ until the sale of its contents in 1991.