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Bookcase
  • Date: About 1770
  • Medium: Oak, ebony, première-partie Boulle marquetry of brass and turtleshell, gilt bronze, glass, brèche violette marble, steel
  • Object size: 98.8 x 150 x 43.2 cm
  • Inv: F386
  • Location: Landing
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Description
Provenance
Marks/Inscriptions
Further Reading
  • A pair to F387. These break-fronted bookcases date from the second half of the 18th century, when various cabinetmakers revived the skills of André-Charles Boulle and produced new forms of furniture in his style. Here, the brass and turtleshell marquetry is not quite as rich as that found on furniture by Boulle himself, although the bookcases derive from a type made in his workshop. The central door is mounted with a gilt-bronze figure of Pomona, the goddess of fruitful abundance in Roman mythology.

    Sir Richard Wallace bought the bookcases as a young man, acting on behalf of his father, the 4th Marquess of Hertford, for whom he often acted as an agent in the Parisian sale rooms. After inheriting the collection, Wallace exhibited them along with much else at the Bethnal Green Exhibition in 1872–5. In Hertford House, he and Lady Wallace displayed them in the Reynolds Drawing Room (now the Small Drawing Room), alongside English portraits.