Historic Furniture in the Cottonian Collection

HISTORIC FURNITURE IN THE COTTONIAN COLLECTION A CONCISE CATALOGUE

This publication was funded by Arts Council England’s Designation Development Fund.

HISTORIC FURNITURE IN THE COTTONIAN COLLECTION A CONCISE CATALOGUE Published 2014 by Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery.

Designed by Luke Pitcher.

All images copyright of Plymouth City Council (Arts & Heritage Service) or as otherwise stated © All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

ISBN 0 904758 27 X Acknowledgements: The Arts Council England’s Designation Development Fund, with particular thanks to Mary Godwin.

Dr. Adam Bowett John, Pippa, Allan and the team at Tankerdale Limited For further information on the Cottonian Collection please see our website: www.cottoniancollection.org.uk

CONTENTS FOREWORD 03 - 04

FURNITURE FOR A CONNOISSEUR THE COTTONIAN BOOKCASES AND OTHER FURNITURE, 1670-1853.

05 - 12

CONCISE CATALOGUE

13 - 38

Front cover: Antwerp Cabinet, c.1670,CF5 (detail) © Plymouth City Council (Arts & Heritage Service) 2

FOREWORD In October 2012 Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery was fortunate to be awarded grant funding by Arts Council England through their Designation Development Fund. Our ambition was to conserve, research and catalogue ten items of historic furniture held within our Cottonian Collection, which is itself ‘Designated’ by Arts Council England as a collection of outstanding national importance.

These bookcases and cabinets have been part of the collection for well over a century. Many have held the precious volumes of collector Charles Rogers’ print collection for over 250 years. Some appear in Rogers’ account books, others have joined the collection at intervals and in various locations, from Rogers’ London bachelor residence to the marital home of William Cotton III in Surrey, and ultimately from Plymouth Proprietary Library, where the collection became ‘public’ in William Cotton’s momentous gift of1853.

Sarcophagus Cabinet, CF6 (detail)

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In the choice of veneer, of style and of finish, are to be found the characters and concerns of the men who built this fine collection.

Until now we have had only glimpses of the stories hidden inside the cabinet doors, but as this concise catalogue explains, we are now building a much more detailed picture of their significance.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the noted Furniture Historian Dr Adam Bowett for his work on this project. Our thanks must also go to John Hartley and his excellent team at Tankerdale Limited, who carried out all the conservation work to the furniture.

In 2015 we will celebrate the centenary of the Cottonian’s transfer to Plymouth City Council, and I think it is fair to say that for the first time, the cabinets and bookcases which store the collection will truly be more than just ‘part of the furniture’.

Nicola Moyle Head of Arts & Heritage Plymouth City Council

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FURNITURE FOR A CONNOISSEUR THE COTTONIAN BOOKCASES AND OTHER FURNITURE, 1670-1853.

Since it was given to the Plymouth Proprietary Library in 1853 the Cottonian Collection of books, manuscripts, prints and paintings has deservedly received much scholarly attention.

Rather less attention has been devoted to its furniture, but in the course of research and restoration in 2013 it has become clear that the furniture can tell us much about history of the collection and its owners. The ten catalogued pieces represent two centuries of ownership; custodianship is perhaps a better word, because every owner, from Robert Townson to the Plymouth Proprietary Library, has recognised that the collection is a gift in perpetuity from one generation to the next. The furniture is the physical manifestation of that recognition.

The oldest piece of furniture in the collection is an Antwerp cabinet (CF5), which was probably made about 1670. The turtleshell veneers (popularly called ‘tortoiseshell’), ebony mouldings and brass appliqués are typical of the late baroque Antwerp style.

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These cabinets were popular with English antiquarians and collectors in the 19th century, at which time many were imported, but it is possible that this particular cabinet belonged to Robert Townson (1640-1707), the founder and originator of the Cottonian Collection.

Townson was a trader with international connections, doing business not only throughout Europe and the Mediterranean but even to North and South America. As Chief Clerk of the London Customs House from 1669, he will have been familiar with every kind of commodity imported into England from near and far, and it was perhaps this that first sparked his interest in forming a collection. While we cannot be certain that Robert or his son William (1682-1740) owned this cabinet, we can be sure that William’s friend and successor at the Customs House, Charles Rogers (1711-1784), did, for in July 1770 he paid the cabinet-maker Robert Tuson £3 8s to alter the cabinet by fitting its drawers with small trays to accommodate a collection of medals. These trays, lined with their brightly coloured paper, still survive.

Charles Rogers FRS, FSA (1711 – 1784)

By Sir Joshua Reynolds PRA, oil on canvas, 1777

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Charles Rogers began to commission furniture as early as 1741, when he ordered a glazed bookcase for his house in Laurence Pountney Lane. Further bookcases followed in rapid succession to accommodate his growing collection of books and manuscripts. In 1757 Rogers commissioned the first of several amboina-wood bookcases. This wood, obtained from the island of Ambon in the Dutch spice islands (now Indonesia), was both rare and expensive; its beautiful colour and figure were quite sufficient to recommend it to any connoisseur, but to Rogers it probably had a further appeal, because from the mid-1750s onwards he began to buy specimens of rare and exotic woods sourced from all over the world. Rogers will have been aware of the work of the great Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778), whose system of binomial classification of all living organisms revolutionised the study of both botany and zoology, and forms the basis of the modern natural sciences. Specimen woods were valued both for their aesthetic qualities and for their scientific interest. Rogers used some of his specimens to veneer the insides of the doors of the amboina bookcases supplied by the cabinet-maker Thomas Wood in 1757 (CF1).

In 1772 Charles Rogers ordered a ‘sarcophagus’ cabinet standing on lion’s paws from Robert Tuson. This highly fashionable piece of furniture was probably inspired by 7

the neo-classical furniture designs of the architect Robert Adam, or perhaps by recently published engravings of Roman marble sarcophagi (tombs) standing among the fallen columns of ruinous temples. Although made primarily of mahogany, the sarcophagus is partly veneered with South American amarillo wood. Now a lustrous brown colour, this wood is canary yellow when fresh, so that the front of the new sarcophagus would have been bright yellow, cut with wavy flutes of rich red mahogany and set off with jet black ebony mouldings. Like Rogers’ other furniture, the sarcophagus was purpose-made for his books and folios, but it soon proved unequal to the task; in 1775 the carved lion’s tail was added to the middle of the cabinet to help support their weight.

Charles Rogers’ brother-in-law and the next inheritor of the collection was William Cotton I (1731-91). His tenure was probably too brief to make significant changes. His son, William Cotton II (1759-1816), moved his family and the collection to Balham Hill House in 1796.

He clearly appreciated both the utility and the quality of the amboina bookcases, for he designed a new library to accommodate them, placing them in a new configuration along one wall. When much of the collection was sold in 1799, the bookcases were retained and probably remained at Balham until 1823.

By this time the collection had passed to its penultimate owner, William Cotton III (1794 -1863). He married in 1823 and moved to The Priory at Leatherhead in Surrey, taking with him the amboina bookcases.

Until his death in 1784 Rogers was still adding to his collection. In 1780 he ordered another cabinet or bookcase from Robert Tuson, which is perhaps one of the two surviving smaller amboina bookcases (CF3).

It was made to match the earlier ones, but with an updated style of glazing and using, in addition to amboina, veneers of newlyfashionable zebrawood from Central America.

As well as bookcases and cabinets, Rogers commissioned tables and picture frames veneered with amboina, but these, sadly, do not survive.

As at Balham Hill, the new house required extensive alterations to accommodate even the reduced collection. A watercolour of about 1840 shows Cotton and his wife seated in their library at The Priory with Charles Rogers’ bookcases (CF1) ranged against the far wall (see overleaf). On the right hand wall, to one side of the fireplace, is a matching bookcase (probably CF3). It is likely that the third bookcase (CF2) is out of view, on the other side of the fireplace. This bookcase was commissioned by William Cotton III, probably about 1825-30, to match CF3.

Plan Chest, CF4 (detail) 8

The Library at The Priory, Leatherhead Artist unknown, watercolour Š J.G.L Jackson

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It uses the same amboina wood as the other bookcases and is veneered on the lower doors with manchineel, an unusual West Indian wood with a somewhat unsavoury reputation; the Spanish called it arbor del muerte because of its caustic sap. Charles Rogers would have approved, for specimen veneers of manchineel occur on the original bookcases commissioned by him in 1757. The making of this bookcase, perhaps seventy years after the first, is a striking illustration of the sense of legacy and continuity which is one of the most remarkable aspects of the collection and its owners.

William Cotton III added further furniture and objects which manifest his own taste and inclinations. The watercolour of c.1840 shows, on the left side of the room, an ebony table and chairs bought at the 1823 sale of the contents of Fonthill Abbey. Fonthill was the great house built by William Beckford, one of England’s most energetic collectors and connoisseurs, who was forced to sell to avoid bankruptcy. The sale caused a sensation, and Cotton was just one of many collectors who sought a memento of the great, the notorious, William Beckford.

Unfortunately the ebony tables and chair are no longer in the collection, but other furniture bought by William Cotton III does remain.

The oak plan chest (CF4) can be seen in the watercolour at the back of the room, in front of the bookcases.

This style of furniture, vaguely gothic in its decoration and veneered with choice sections of burr oak, is typical of the early Victorian penchant for ‘historical’ furniture made with native woods. The panels are carved in the 17th century Low Countries style. A rosewood circular table (CF10), is a conventional late Regency model, but of exemplary quality.

It was probably inevitable that when the Cottonian collection came into public ownership in 1853 the furniture was for a time regarded more as convenient storage rather than as a legacy in its own right. Additions were made, such as the glazed bookcase (CF7), a typically well-made but unspectacular piece of mid-Victorian furniture, and the pair of low cabinets (CF 8 & 9), which have a decidedly municipal character. Nevertheless, these too have their place in the continuing story of the Cottonian Collection.

Dr. Adam Bowett Independent Furniture Historian 2014

William Cotton III, MA, FSA (1795 – 1864)

By Stephen Poyntz Denning, oil on canvas, 1845 11

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BOOKCASE Large glazed and amboyna-veneered bookcase, probably by Thomas Wood, c.1757, of eight bays graduated in depth, being deepest at the centre and shallowest at the wings, with a dentilled cornice over glazed doors and blind doors below, on bracket feet.

Each H 233 cm (91 ¾“), W 250.5 cm (98 ½”), D 64 cm (25 ¼“).

The oak backboards run horizontally across multiple bays and are nailed into rebates in the back, with some later screws. The cornice is planted on. It is made of mahogany and mahogany veneer backed onto oak and deal strips. The feet and end section plinths are constructed of mahogany-veneered deal and oak secured with deal/oak glue blocks.

Materials: Mahogany (Swietenia spp.), oak (Quercus spp.), veneers of amboyna (Pterocarpus spp.) and other woods.

Commentary: During conservation it became apparent that these bookcases, which are currently configured to make one, were originally three. The centre bays (4 & 5) are veneered on their outside faces, indicating they were originally not joined to the others.

Each group of three outer bays (1, 2, 3 & 6, 7, 8) is also veneered on its outside faces. These veneered sides were also clearly marked by their original cornice and surbase mouldings, now vanished. The notion that the two outer groups were made as a pair is reinforced by the fact that the outside veneers on their lower doors form a mirror image, i.e., 1 matches 8, 2 matches 7 and 3 matches 6.

It is possible the bookcases were first configured in the present arrangement for installation at Balham Hill c.1796, since the Reminiscences describes all the bookcases ranged along one wall in the new Library:

Construction: The bookcase is of modular construction, consisting of eight bays each of two sections (eight up, eight down, sixteen in all), each constructed as a box, dovetailed top and bottom. Tops and bottoms are oak, the sides a combination of mahogany and oak.

Each is divided internally by adjustable shelves running in grooves made by applied oak strips with mahogany noses. The four upper bays have glazed doors, of two panes divided horizontally, hung on brass butt hinges. The door frames are solid mahogany, joined with mortise and tenon. The lower doors are flushveneered, and probably have an oak substrate of flush-panelled construction. The bays are screwed to each other through their sides, and the top bays are screwed to the lower ones.

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CF1

The new library, which formed the east wing of the garden front, was 25 feet in length, and lighted from the roof, as being best adapted for the display of prints. Cabinets of Amboina wood, with plate glass, extended from one end of the room to the other on the south side, and contained a series of large folio volumes in sepia leather full of prints and painter’s etchings. Over the fireplace on the opposite side were three capital drawings, views of Windsor Castle, by Paul Sandby, in frames of Amboina wood. .. On each side of the fireplace were open cases, with a collection of Delphin and Variorim Classics and miscellaneous literature. At the east end stood an antique cabinet of black mahogany, full of

books relating to the Fine Arts, and in front of it a smaller cabinet of inlaid wood, filled with coins and medals, and supporting a cast, in plaster of Paris, of St Sebastian by Puget, Venus and Mercury… with a magnificent set of China jars and beakers of unusual size and beauty, which ornamented the top of cabinets.

Reminiscences of W. Cotton, edited by K S Hamilton Edwards, p. 10.

When William Cotton III moved to Leatherhead in 1824 the bookcases followed; they can be seen in the watercolour of the Library, painted about 1840, placed along the far wall.

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It is likely that the bookcases were originally made for Rogers’ house in Lawrence Pountney Lane or his country place at Richmond. The list of purchases made by Charles Rogers between c.1740 and 1784 (Cottonian Collection Archive No. 359) records a number of amboyna bookcases or ‘cabinets’ being supplied at various times by two London furniture-makers, Thomas Wood and Robert Tuson. Of these, only one purchase was for two cabinets simultaneously: 26 Oct 1757 Paid Mr Wood for making two Amboina Cabinets & other Work £ 70 - This payment might conceivably account for the two outer groups of three bays, in which case they were the first to be delivered. A further payment for an amboina cabinet, which might account for the centre two bays (4 & 5), was made in 1760: 25 October 1760 Paid Do [Robert Tuson] for an Amboina Cabinet, Table £ 23 - The fact that all three bookcases match, even in details of their construction, suggests a common source, and this raises the possibility that Tuson inherited or took over Thomas Wood’s workshop. Unfortunately, we do not know anything more about either Thomas Wood or Robert Tuson.

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The graduated arrangement of the two groups of outer bays is highly unusual, and was almost certainly dictated by their contents.

Also somewhat unusual are the flushveneered lower doors – these would normally be panelled. The flush construction was probably chosen to show off the specimen veneers, and at the same time care was taken to continue the line of the door stiles down to the base by giving each lower door a wide vertical border. The use of amboyna wood, which is the burr form of what is now called padouk, is uncommon at this date; indeed, these bookcases are the earliest documented examples of English furniture employing this wood. The wood was sourced in the Dutch East Indies, of which Ambon or Amboina was one of the principal islands. Many subsequent purchases of amboyna furniture indicate that Rogers particularly favoured this wood, although it is not clear whether his preference was purely aesthetic or whether the wood had some symbolic significance.

Equally unusual, and possibly unique, is the manner in which the inside faces of the lower doors are faced with veneers of specimen woods. There are several entries in Rogers’ lists of acquisitions which record the purchase of wood specimens and/or veneers about the time these bookcases were being made:

9 Jan 1755 Various Woods £ 3 5 0 To Mr Thos Wood the Cabinet Maker for Work £ 15 18 5 22 July 1755 To Capt King for a Log of Yellow Brazil Wood £ 1 3 6 24 Nov 1757 Vaneers of Wood £ 2 19 0 It is conceivable, therefore, that these entries refer to the specimens used on the cabinet.

If so, it indicates that it was Rogers himself, and not the cabinet-maker, who determined the choice of woods and supplied some or all of them. Although Rogers’ collecting was directed chiefly towards books and engravings, he also bought collections of shells, marbles &c., which demonstrates an interest in natural history.

See overleaf for visual survey of the specimen woods used on the interiors of doors 1- 8 (i.e. left to right as viewed), on CF1.

Large Bookcase, interior of door no. 5 CF1 (detail) 16

Holly Ilex aquifolium

Amboyna Pterocarpus indicus

13 DOOR

DOOR

Burr Yew Taxus baccata

Barberry Berberis vulgaris

Amboyna Pterocarpus spp.

Red Cedar (Transverse Cut) Juniperus spp.

West Indian Satinwood Zanthoxylum spp.

Cocus Brya ebenus

2 DOOR

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East Indian Satinwood Chloroxylon swietenia Olive Olea europaea Manchineel Hippomane mancinella

African Blackwood Dalbergia melanoxyon

East Indian Satinwood Chloroxylon swietenia Burr Walnut Juglans spp.

Maple Acer spp.

Burr Yew Taxus baccata

4 DOOR

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5 DOOR

Camwood Baphia nitida

Camwood Baphia nitida

Yew Taxus baccata Burr Poplar Populus spp.

Burr Walnut Juglans spp.

Barberry Berberis vulgaris

DOOR

Cocus Brya ebenus Palm Various species

West Indian Satinwood Zanthoxylum flavum Spalted Horse Chestnut Aesculus hippocastanum Palm Various species

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Figured Ash Fraxinus excelsior West Indian Satinwood Zanthoxylum flavum

DOOR

8 DOOR

Snakewood Piratinera guianensis

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BOOKCASE A glazed bookcase, 19th century, of breakfront form, with a dentilled cornice over four glazed doors with lancet-arched glazing bars, over four cupboard doors below. H 232 cm (91 ½”), W 258.5 cm (101 ¾ “), D 45 cm (17 ¾ “).

Materials: mahogany (Swietenia spp.) deal (Picea spp.) or white pine (Pinus strobus L.), veneers of amboyna (Pterocarpus spp.), manchineel (Hippomane mancinella L.) and ebony (Diospyros spp.).

Construction: The bookcase is of modular construction, in eight sections (four above and four below); all parts are mahogany except top and bottom boards of deal or white pine, and the backs. The sections are screwed to each other. The back appears to be white pine; it is of panelled construction and screwed into a rebate at the back of the cases. The cornice is mahogany on a deal or pine core, and is integral to the upper cases. The glazed door frames are solid mahogany veneered with amboyna, with mortise and tenon construction; the interior shelves of

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CF2 mahogany are supported by mahogany spacers applied to the case sides. The surbase and base mouldings are solid mahogany, applied to the case. The lower doors are mahogany, each framed into four panels but flush on the outside face. They are veneered with manchineel and bordered with ebony and amboyna.

Commentary: At first glance this bookcase is the pair to CF3. However, the dimensions are different (this one is shallower), and so is the construction. Unlike CF3, no oak is used in the construction. Moreover, the panelled construction of the back and lower doors is completely unlike CF3, and the finish is much better. It is likely that this was made to match CF3, probably in the first half of the 19th century. Consequently it post-dates Charles Rogers and was probably commissioned

by William Cotton III. If this hypothesis is correct, it indicates that William Cotton went to considerable lengths to maintain and perpetuate Rogers’ legacy, both in terms of its content and its furniture.

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BOOKCASE

CF3 Materials: mahogany (Swietenia spp.), oak (Quercus spp.), deal (Pinus or picea spp.), veneers of zebrawood (Astronium spp.), ebony (Diospyros spp.) and amboyna (Pterocarpus spp.).

A glazed bookcase, late 18th century, of breakfront form, with a dentilled cornice over four glazed doors with lancet-arched glazing bars, over four cupboard doors below. H 231.5 cm (91”), W 260 cm (102½”), D 54 cm (21¼”).

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Construction: The case is of modular construction in six sections (three above and three below), comprising the centre and the two wings, all screwed to each other. The case is entirely mahogany except for the base and top of oak. The back is of oak boards, horizontally aligned and nailed and screwed into a rebate. The upper door frames are mahogany, mortise and tenoned together and hung on butt hinges. The grooves for the shelves are ploughed into the sides. The shelves are deal with mahogany applied to the leading edges. The lower doors are flush panelled in mahogany and veneered, with zebrawood, amboyna and ebony outside, mahogany inside. They are hung on butt hinges. The cornice is mahogany on a deal core, and planted on. The feet are mahogany, supported by deal glue blocks.

Commentary: This bookcase was probably supplied by Robert Tuson. The double-bead moulding on the leading edge of the shelves is the same as that on the leading edge of the central divider of the ‘sarcophagus cabinet’ CF5, supplied by Tuson in 1772. There are several entries in Charles Rogers’s list of purchases which might refer to this bookcase: 25 October 1759 Paid Do [Tuson] for an Amboina Cabinet, Table, £ 23 - 22 January 1763 Paid Mr R Tuson for a Cabinet for Drawings £ 22 - 15 August 1764 Do for Glass Doors of an Amboina Book Case in the Closet £ 9 18 0 4 November 1776 Do for a Cabinet for Classics £ 16 - 7 March 1780 Pd Mr R Tuson for a Cabinet in the fore-room £ 31 19 6 Mr Jos. Pulley for Glass to Do £ 1 19 6

It is impossible to determine which, if any, of these entries refers to the present bookcase, but the use of zebrawood veneers suggests a date in the 1760s or 1770s. This wood is indigenous to Central and South America, and the chief source in the 18th century was Belize (British Honduras). Importations of mahogany and other cabinet woods from this area began in 1763 and shipments of zebrawood, also called palmaletto wood, are recorded until the mid-1770s. The ‘Cabinet for Classics’ delivered in 1776 or the ‘Cabinet in the fore-room’ delivered in 1780 are likely candidates.

This bookcase is probably the one shown to the left of the fireplace in the watercolour of William Cotton III and his wife in the library of The Priory, Leatherhead. Before that it was almost certainly in the library at Balham Hill.

According to the Reminiscences, the library was 30 feet long, with bookcases all along one wall. There is evidence on the proper right side of the bookcase that it was once attached to something else, and if this bookcase is added to bookcase no. 1 the total length is about 28 feet.

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PLAN CHEST A burr oak plan chest, c.1840, with a moulded top over an ogee-carved frieze and two panelled doors, the panels carved with the figures of St Helen (L) and St Barbara (R), between applied pilasters carved with fruit and foliage, the sides having paired panels carved in the ‘Renaissance’ style, on a confirming plinth with castors. H 95.5 cm (37 ½”), W 120 cm (47 ¼”), D 81.5 (31 ¾”).

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CF4 Castors are fixed in each corner of the plinth with three screws each. The whole of the underside and back is covered with a black wash. Most mouldings are solid oak, applied; the moulding around the top is burr oak veneer on pine.

Materials: Oak (solid and veneers - Quercus spp.), mahogany (Swietenia spp.), white pine?

(Pinus strobus L.)

Commentary: This plan chest is probably that shown in the watercolour of William Cotton III and his wife seated in the library at The Priory.

It stands at the back of the room, with figures and a bust on top, and the 18th century bookcases behind.

Construction: The case is made of two panelled sides tenoned into the top and top bottom frames. The doors are fixed with butt hinges to the stiles, and the panelled back is screwed into a rebate. The top frame forms the frieze; it is a pine frame, presumably dovetailed at the corners, veneered with oak and with applied Gothic detail also in oak. The top proper is fixed to the frame from below with pocketed screws. The top is made of mahogany boards, butt-joined, and veneered with burr oak. The base or plinth is a frame of pine similar to the top frame, boarded over to form a floor to the case and reinforced underneath with battens and glue blocks. A central support or brace is housed into the front and back rails on a conforming plinth.

It is a good quality piece of furniture, in a hybrid Gothic/Renaissance style which is fairly typical of the early Victorian period. The choice of burr oak is likewise typical, the wood being deemed appropriate both for historicist objects and for libraries. It is difficult to know what significance attaches to the subject matter of the front panels. St Helen was the mother of Constantine the Great, and is said to have discovered, among other things, the True Cross. She is regarded as the patron saint of new discoveries. St Barbara is the patron saint of engineers, artillerymen and mining. These might relate to the contents of the chest – architectural plans, drawings, etc. - but it is impossible to confirm this without knowing the original contents.

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EBONY AND CF5 TURTLESHELL CABINET An ebony and turtleshell cabinet, c.1670, embellished with stamped brass mounts, probably Antwerp, late 17th century; having a moulded cornice over a central cupboard fashioned as a double-doored portico flanked by columns with brass Composite capitals, and with the pediment and plinth made as drawers, enclosing a mirror-backed arcaded niche with inlaid floor in bone and snakewood, with a slide under, flanked on each side by a vertical tier of four short drawers, and with two slim drawers in the base. H 93 cm (36 ¾”), W 148 cm (58¼”), D 49.5 cm (19½”).

Materials: Poplar (Populus spp.), deal (Picea spp.), oak (Quercus spp.), ebony (Diospyros spp.), veneers of snakewood (Brosimum guianense (Aubl.) Huber), rosewood (Dalbergia nigra (Vell.) Allemao ex Benth.), princes wood (Dalbergia cearensis Ducke), turtleshell, bone, stamped brass.

Construction: The carcase is a dovetailed box, with poplar sides and deal top and bottom.

The deal backboards are vertically oriented and nailed into a rebate in the carcase walls.

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The top and bottom carcase mouldings are composite and applied, and the sides have shallow applied mouldings to simulate panelled construction. The interior dividers and dustboards are poplar, housed in slots ploughed in the carcase and interior dividers.

The drawers have poplar fronts, oak sides, bottoms and backs; bevelled front mouldings are planted on and finished with applied ripple-moulded ebony edge mouldings.

The eight short drawers to either side of the cupboard have been modified to take shallow drawers accessible only from the back, after the drawer has been fully withdrawn from the carcase. The hinges to the central doors are probably original, but the lock is English, 18th century, as are the locks to the drawers. The central niche has a mirrored back and sides and a coved roof lined with coloured paper; the small interior niche in the back of the cupboard is also lined with marbled paper. All show surfaces are veneered with a combination of turtleshell, tropical hardwoods and bone, over which stamped brass decoration is fixed with small brass pins.

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Commentary: Cabinets of this type are usually associated with Antwerp, although some are also thought to have been made in Naples which, like Antwerp, was under Spanish control in the late 17th century.

The use of oak drawer linings, together with South American exotics such as snakewood, rosewood and princes wood, suggest Antwerp as the more likely place of manufacture. The turtleshell, popularly called ‘tortoiseshell’, was obtained from several different species, but most is thought to have come from the Hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata); it was imported from the Caribbean. When prepared for veneering the shell is virtually transparent, and the mottled red colour is produced by paint underneath the shell.

The cabinet’s construction is conventional for the type and period. The standard of work is good but not exceptional, and some of the metalwork (especially the column capitals) is decidedly poor. It is possible that the stamped brass embellishments are not original, since there is evidence of earlier applied decoration beneath. Other doubtful or replaced elements are identified in the conservator’s report. On the other hand, the painted paper used to line the coved ceiling of the niche is a rare survival.The most interesting aspect of the cabinet is the modification of the drawers.

Each of the eight original short drawers has had a ‘lid’ fitted, forming a closed box, and its back sawn off. This allowed the insertion 29

of other, smaller drawers within, removable only from behind (i.e., you must first take the drawer out of the cabinet). Each small drawer is variously divided into compartments by mahogany fillets. Most are lined with blue ‘sugar bag’ paper, except the top two (of the four) drawers within the bottom drawer on the viewed left side – marked below with one asterisk. These two drawers are lined with silk rather than paper. All of the smaller drawers have brass ring pull handles except the seven drawers in the bottom two viewed right drawers (marked with two asterisks), These seven drawers (marked with **) have brass knobs instead of ring pulls.

half of the 18th century, and the small brass drawer pulls are consistent with such a date.

The main drawers were not originally fitted with locks; these too are English, probably dating from the mid-18th century. It is possible this cabinet was inherited by Rogers from William Townson. The putative dating of the modifications suggests that the cabinet could have been altered on the instructions of Charles Rogers, and there are several entries in his list of purchases which might refer to such work, but none specific enough to positively identify it. There is one relatively late entry which does refer to alterations to a tortoiseshell cabinet:

Viewed left 3 drawers inside drawer 3 drawers inside drawer 4 drawers inside drawer** 4 drawers inside drawer**

9 July 1770 Pd Mr R Tuson for fitting up a small tortoiseshell Cabinet with drawers for medals £ 3 8 -

Viewed right 3 drawers inside drawer 3 drawers inside drawer 3 drawers inside drawer** 4 drawers inside drawer**

The modified drawers were probably intended to house medals, coins, miniatures, cameos or perhaps shells and fossils, all of which were of interest to 18th century connoisseur-collectors such as Charles Rogers. Indeed, Rogers’s own list of purchases mentions many of these things. The style of the inserted drawers, with rounded tops to the drawer sides, is typical of English drawer construction of the first

Although the date is rather late for the style of drawer construction there is a strong possibility that this entry refers to the present cabinet. Another possibility is that this is the tortoiseshell cabinet which William Cotton III bought at the Fonthill sale in 1823: In October we went to Worthing and from thence to the sale at Fonthill Abbey where I bought a set of chairs, an ebony table and tortoiseshell cabinet.

Gerald K S Hamilton (ed.), Reminiscences of W. Cotton, p. 67.

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THE ‘SARCOPHAGUS’ CABINET A mahogany and specimen wood low cabinet, of sarcophagus form, by Robert Tuson, 1772; having a moulded top over two doors decorated with ‘strigilated’ fluting centred by a carved patera and enclosing a compartmented interior, on carved hairy paw feet. H 98 cm (38 ½”, W 154 cm (60 ½”, D 57 cm (22 ½”).

Materials: Mahogany (Swietenia spp.), amarillo (Aspidosperma parvifolium A. DC.), deal (Pinus spp.), ebony (Diospyros spp.), lime (Tilia spp.), veneers of amboyna (Pterocarpus spp.), padouk (Pterocarpus spp.), ebony (Diospyros spp.), holly (Ilex aquifolium L.) and an unidentified tropical hardwood.

Construction: The carcase is made from four mahogany boards about 20” wide, dovetailed at the corners. The back is mahogany, framed and panelled, and screwed into a rebate at the rear. The interior is divided vertically by a central mahogany board, fixed with wedged tenons into top and bottom boards. In the right compartment there is a later vertical division made with a narrow deal board which divides the space into two unequal parts. The left compartment has a removable case of mahogany shelves which divides it horizontally 31

CF6

into three folio compartments. Top moulding is solid mahogany, applied. The base moulding is composite, of mahogany faced with ebony, applied to the carcase and supported behind with mahogany glue blocks. The carved feet are dowelled into each corner of the base moulding, and the central carved support is tenoned (?) up into the base moulding.

The doors are solid mahogany, flush-panelled with three vertically-oriented boards in the panel; they are each hung on three brass butt hinges. Hinges and screws are original, as is the central lock and lock-keep both of which, however, have been adjusted and packed to accommodate shrinkage. The central carved patera is applied, and appears to be lime.

Each door and both ends of the carcase have a slim ebony astragal moulding which defines the fluted central panel. The panels were first veneered with bright yellow amarillo (now discoloured to dark brown) through which the flutes have been cut, thereby exposing the underlying mahogany to create a particoloured red/yellow appearance. The inner faces of the doors are veneered with a central panel of figured mahogany with spandrels of amarillo, within a wide border of a dark,

brown/purple-coloured hardwood. Each section of veneer is outlined by a slim ebony band.

The top is veneered with a central circle of amboyna burr, flanked by diamonds of padouk, and set within spandrels of amarillo. Each pane of veneer is bordered with an ebony band. Outside this there are two bands bordering the whole top; the inner one is dyed holly, now blackish but originally probably a different colour, and the outer one is ebony.

Commentary: This cabinet was supplied by Robert Tuson and paid for on 23 December 1772. Charles Rogers’ entry in his list of purchases reads as follows (Cottonian Collection 359): 23 Dec 1772 Pd Mr R Tuson for a Sarcophagus-like Cabinet £ 17 15 -

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A few years after its delivery, the cabinet was evidently sagging under the weight of its contents, and in January 1775 Tuson added the carved lion’s tail which acts as a central support (Cottonian Collection 359): 17 Jan 1775 Paid Mr R Tuson for a Lion’s tail of Mahogony carved, for the sarcophagus £ - 17 The arrangement of veneers on the cabinet and the inner faces of the doors is clearly intended to compliment that used on the bookcases supplied by Thomas Wood in 1757, although the layout does not match exactly. The cabinet would originally have had a striking parti-coloured red and yellow appearance, the red being mahogany and the yellow amarillo. The latter is a South American hardwood (Aspidosperma parvifolium A. DC.), called in the 19th century ‘canary wood’. Its use here is extremely unusual, for there are no other 18th century examples known. It is possible that this wood is from the log purchased by Rogers in July 1755 (Cottonian Collection 359): 22 July 1755 To Capt King for a Log of Yellow Brazil Wood £ 1 3 6

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The term ‘sarcophagus’ refers partly to the cabinet’s low, tomb-like form, but more specifically to the wavy, fluted decoration on the front, sometimes described as ‘strigilated’, after the curved bronze scrapers or strigils used in Roman bathhouses.

The motif occurs on several surviving Roman sarcophagi, together with others recorded in drawings either made by or collected by the Adam brothers in Italy (Soane Museum: Adam 4/67, 6/90, 56/69, 56/89, 56/97, 56/103, 56/121, 56/126). It also occurs on furniture designed by Robert Adam as early as 1764, for instance in the base of a bookcase designed for Lord Coventry (Soane Museum: Adam 17/213). Modified versions were adopted for hall benches and stools at Bowood, Landsdowne House and Kedleston. The twelve Kedleston benches were probably supplied by the London furniture-maker John Linnell about 1774, and were described in the Kedleston Catalogue of 1778 as ‘after the ancient sarcophagus’. The sarcophagus form was obviously familiar to cabinet-makers and cognoscenti alike, although it is not clear how it was disseminated; the most probable source is a contemporary engraving, now lost.

It is worth noting that the double-bead moulding on the leading edge of the internal divider matches that used on the leading edges of the shelves in bookcase no. 3. This supports the notion that Tuson was the maker of this bookcase.

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DWARF BOOKCASE A mahogany dwarf bookcase, c. 1870, with a moulded top over four clear-glazed doors, on a moulded base with six ball feet. H 103 cm (40 ½”), W 219 cm (86 ¼”), D 36 cm (14”).

Materials: mahogany (Swietenia spp.), white pine (Pinus strobus L.) Construction: The case is made as a rectangular box, presumably dovetailed at the corners. It is divided internally by a central partition housed into grooves in the top and bottom boards. The shelves are housed into grooves in the case sides and into the central partition. The partition has a stile screwed to

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CF7

its forward edge which forms the hanging stile for the two centre doors, while the outer doors are hung on similar stiles at each end.

All doors have mortise and tenon frames and butt hinges. The back is panelled and screwed into a rebate. The base moulding is glued to battens on the base; the feet are turned and dowelled into square blocks which are either glued or screwed to the base board. The solid top moulding is applied.

Commentary: These bookcases are of average ‘municipal’ quality. They almost certainly post-date the acquisition of the collection by the Plymouth Proprietary Library.

DWARF CABINETS A near pair of dwarf cabinets, late 19th century, painted all over to simulate figured walnut, each with a moulded top over three panelled doors, shelves within, on bracket feet.

CF8: H 79cm (31”), W 254cm (100”), D 37.5cm (14 ¾”).

CF9: H 82cm (32 ¼”), W 249cm (98”), D 37.5cm (14 ¾”).

Materials: white pine (Pinus strobus L.) Construction: each cabinet is made as a single box, dovetailed at the corners.

It is subdivided by two vertical partitions dovetailed or tenoned into the top and bottom boards. The doors are panelled, the frames joined by mortise and tenon and hung on iron butt hinges with

CF8&9

impressed mark BALDWIN. The internal shelves are adjustable, supported by battens resting in ‘saw-tooth’ type strips fixed to the sides. The top has an applied edge moulding of solid wood. Base moulding and bracket feet are fixed with battens and glue blocks and perhaps screwed.

Commentary: These are late 19th century, of indifferent quality. They were probably made well after the collection was transferred to Plymouth Proprietary Library in 1853. The tops have been cut in the centre to accommodate a semi-circular pillar or other intrusion, and the feet of the lower cabinet have been adjusted to make it the same height as the other. The ‘scumbled’ or imitation walnut finish is probably original. A plywood false top currently covers both cabinets, concealing the cut-outs and enabling display cases to be placed on top.

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ROSEWOOD TABLE A rosewood occasional table, c.1825, with a circular top on a tapered pillar with leaf-carved baluster and turned socle, on a flat triform base with lotus-carved feet and castors. H 73 cm (28 ¾”), diameter 76 cm (30 ¼”).

Materials: Brazilian rosewood (Dalbergia nigra (Vell.) Allemao ex Benth., solid and veneers), mahogany (Swietenia spp.), white pine? (Pinus strobus L.).

Construction: The top is a single board of mahogany, veneered with rosewood on its upper surface. A moulding of solid rosewood is applied to the underside of the edge in six sections; it is not clear how this is fixed to the top, but it could be screwed through from the upper side, the screws being covered by the rosewood veneer. The underside of the table is braced with four mahogany battens, screwed and plugged to the top, and forming an open square in which the support block on top of the pillar is located. The block pivots on two brass thumbscrews passing through the two side battens and is secured with a sprung brass catch screwed to the underside of the top. The block is mahogany, laminated in two pieces set at 90 degrees to each other, and is 40 mm thick in total. The pillar is turned from solid rosewood, and is fixed by two tenons 37

CF10

into the block. The tenons are secured or ‘foxed’ with oak wedges. The turned socle at the base of the pillar is formed by additional pieces of solid rosewood being glued to the base of the pillar and then turned. The pillar is secured to the base with four large screws, one placed centrally and the other three arranged in a triangle.

It is possible that the base of the pillar is also sunk or shallow-tenoned into the base, but this cannot be confirmed without disassembly. The base is made of three white pine (?) blocks jointed Y-fashion at the centre, the edges being given depth with glued battens. The top surface and sides of the base are veneered with rosewood and the whole of the underside is covered by a black wash. The solid rosewood feet are fixed to the base each with a single large screw. Brass castors are sunk into the feet and fixed with three screws each.

Commentary: This is a good quality, late Regency table. It was presumably bought

by William Cotton III, perhaps after his marriage and move to Leatherhead in 1824.

A brass plaque mounted to the upper face of the support block claims that this table was associated with Napoleon I (d.1821).

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