ELVEDEN HALL
Elveden Hall was purchased by Edward Cecil Guinness, 1st Bt. and later 1st Earl of Iveagh (1847-1927) of the Guinness brewing family in 1894, following the death of its previous owner, the Maharajah Duleep Singh (1838-1893), the deposed sovereign of the Sikh nation. The stately home was extended and enlarged over the next ten years under the architects Clyde Young and Sir Caspar Purdon Clarke. It was during this time that this remarkable chest-on-chest was probably acquired for Elveden by the 1st Earl, who was a passionate collector and amassed a distinguished collection of Old Master paintings, antique furniture, and historic textiles throughout his lifetime. The Earl was a top client of the influential art dealer Joe Duveen (1869-1939), who alternatively may have supplied this chest-on-chest to him.
Like many country houses across the United Kingdom, Elveden Hall was requisitioned and re-purposed by the British government during the Second World War. This chest-on-chest, along with numerous other Guinness family heirlooms and its valuable art collection would have been covered and stored away somewhere in the house, which was used as a headquarters for the United States Army Airforce (USAAF). At one point during the war, the staff quarters were apparently struck and destroyed by a bomb, thus the survival of this chest-on-chest is all the more impressive.
Elveden was returned to the Earls of Iveagh after the war, but at that point the Guinness family had taken up residence elsewhere. By 1984, Arthur Francis Benjamin Guinness, 3rd Earl of Iveagh (1937-1992) was living primarily in Ireland, leading him to sell the entire contents of Elveden Hall. A matter of great public intrigue, the contents had remained virtually untouched since the war and included some of the belongings formerly in the collection of the Maharajah Duleep Singh. Culminating in an outstanding four-day auction held by Christie’s on the premises, the sale was widely covered by the press and was a tremendous success. The chest-on-chest was sold as lot 374, which was the last time it appeared on the market until now.
THE ATTRIBUTION TO WILLIAM HALLETT
This extraordinary chest-on-chest is firmly attributed to William Hallett (d. 1781) based on its nearly identical counterpart, a cabinet-on-chest originally from Halswell Park that is signed by Hallett and dated 1763, and is furthermore the only known piece to bear his signature (The William R. Reilly Collection, sold, Christie’s, New York, 13 October 2009, lot 54 for $218,500). The only notable difference is the doors in the upper section, as opposed to drawers. Both pieces can be compared with a pedimented bookcase of similar quality at Uppark, Sussex, for which the Hallett firm supplied furniture (illustrated in A. Coleridge, Chippendale Furniture, New York, 1968, pl. 68).
William Hallett established his business at Great Newport Street, Long Acre in 1730 and became the pre-eminent cabinet-maker supplying furniture to the 4th Duke of Beaufort at Badminton, 1st Earl of Leicester at Holkham, 2nd Earl of Lichfield at Ditchley Park and 7th Earl of Pembroke at Wilton House among others. His fortuitous second marriage in 1756 to a wealthy cousin provided him with a substantial dowry and allowed him to build a country house at Cannons, the former estate of the Duke of Chandos, thus redirecting his focus to his properties. It was at this time that he appears to have retired from furniture making, delegating his duties to his son, William Jr. (d. 1767), who carried on the business. The elder Hallett established himself as a silent partner to cabinet-makers William Vile and John Cobb, who later became Royal cabinet-makers in 1761, and whose exceptional work is often confused with that of their mentor.
The 1763 date of the signature found on the nearly-identical cabinet from the Reilly Collection has invited questions as to whether the piece was made in the 1750s by Hallett Senior and later signed by his son, or whether actually made in the year in which it was signed - 1763 - either by Hallett Senior or Junior. This debate was explored by Geoffrey Beard in 'The Quest for William Hallett', Furniture History,1985. The inaccessible location of the signature (the reverse of the front board at the base; the date now obscured by a glue block) makes it unlikely that it was later added, supporting a 1763 date of manufacture despite its earlier style. Pat Kirkham published evidence that the Hallett firm was still thriving in the 1760s, citing that in 1764 William Hallett the upholder asked a fee of fifty pounds from an apprentice (P. Kirkham, 'The Craft Training: Apprenticeship', Furniture History, 1988, p. 45). Thus, this chest-on-chest was likely made around the same time.
THE DESIGN
This richly sculpted mahogany chest-on-chest presents an elegant Ionic temple in the George II 'Roman' fashion, as popularized by Batty Langley's, The City and Country Builder's and Workman's Treasury of Designs, 1740; and Thomas Chippendale's, The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director, 1754. Its projecting temple-pedimented frontispiece has paired, projecting and antique-fluted pilasters of the Ionic Order that recall Rome's Temple of Fortuna Virilis. The pattern for their Ionic capitals relate to Langley's Treasury (pl. V), and to Chippendale's Director, (pl. III); while the cornice's festive bas-relief ribbon-fret featured in one of Langley's 'Decorations for Cabinet Works' (pl. XCIX no. X). Its dentillated, scallop-hollowed and plinth-centered pediment corresponds to that of a 1753 'Library Bookcase' pattern whose Director preface acknowledged that: 'Of all the Arts which are either improved or ornamented by Architecture, that of CABINET-MAKING is not only the most useful and ornamental, but capable of receiving as great assistance from it as any whatever'. Chippendale's bookcase pediment, in place of a sculpted escutcheon or author's bust, is crowned by a sacred urn (pl. LXII).
The beginning of George III's reign witnessed Chippendale's publication of a third edition of The Director(1762), which coincided with The Antiquities of Athens, issued by the architect James Stuart. He too introduced a Grecian 'key' fret in the frieze of a bedroom-apartment cabinet designed in the late 1750s for Spencer House, London (see S.W. Soros, ed., James 'Athenian' Stuart, New York, 2006, figs. 10-59 and 10-62). The present bedroom-apartment cabinet has its doors sunk with fielded tablets of silken flame-figured veneer, resembling Roman drapery; while its moldings, like that of its 'commode/table' base, are further enhanced by foliated and echinus ribbon-guilloches. Its plinth-supported chest is likewise fronted by projecting and conjoined Ionic columns; its drawers are ormolu-enriched in French 'picturesque' fashion with golden reed handles festooned from festive Bacchic lion-heads.
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