Property from a Westchester, New York Collection (lots 61-67)

The upper cabinet interiors now lined in pale yellow silk with glass shelves and wired for lighting

height 100 ½ in.; width 70 ¼ in.; depth 18 ½ in.
255.3 cm.; 178.5 cm.; 47 cm.

Provenance

Edwyn Francis Scudamore-Stanhope, 10th Earl of Chesterfield (1854-1933), Beningbrough Hall, North Yorkshire; thence by descent to his widow Enid Edith Scudamore-Stanhope, Countess of Chesterfield (1878-1957) at Beningbrough
Beningbrough Hall, York... the important contents of the mansion comprising Charles II, James II, William & Mary, Queen Anne and early Georgian furniture [...], Curtis & Henson, sale on the premises, 10-13 June 1958;
Acquired from Mallett Ltd., London, April 1959

Catalogue note

The pointed 'Gothick' arches of the glazing bars of this elegantly proportioned bookcase are similar to those appearing in designs for Library Bookcases in plates 71 and 73 and a design for a 'China Case' in plate 106 of the first edition of Thomas Chippendale's Gentleman and Cabinet-maker's Director (1754). Comparable gothic-tracery glazing was used on a bookcase supplied by Chippendale in c.1764 for Sir Roland Winn's London house in St James's Square, now at Nostell Priory (illustrated in C. Gilbert, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale, 1978, Vol. II p.41 fig. 65). The swan neck and square plinth cresting were also elements favoured by Chippendale and integrated into a pair of bookcases made for the Earl of Pembroke at Wilton House in c.1762 and another pair commissioned by Sir Lawrence Dundas for his London house at 19 Arlington Street and country seat at Aske Hall, Yorkshire in 1764 (Gilbert, p.44 fig. 68 and p.48 fig. 73). Finally, the moulded rectangular borders with re-entrant corners filled by finely carved neoclassical rosettes are a device employed in Chippendale's late cabinet work such as the dining room pedestals of c.1766 at Paxton House, Berwickshire (one illustrated in D. Jones, The Paxton Style, 2018, p.21 and 35 fig. 8 and 22). The maker of this bookcase was clearly familiar with the full design repertory of the Chippendale workshop and was skilfully able to synthesize the gothic, rococo and neoclassical aspects of its earlier and mature periods.

Beningbrough Hall near York was built to replace an earlier Elizabethan house in 1716 for John Bourchier III, scion of a prominent local family serving as High Sheriffs of Yorkshire. In the early 19th century it passed into the ownership of the Dawnay family, whose descendants sold the house in 1916 to the Earl and Countess of Chesterfield. Some of its furniture was transferred from the previous Chesterfield seat at Holme Lacy, a Herefordshire estate in possession of the Scudamore family since the 14th century that had been sold in 1909, and it is possible this bookcase may have originally been supplied to Charles FitzRoy-Scudamore (1713-1782), who resided at Holme Lacy as the widower of Frances Scudamore, only child of the 3rd Viscount Scudamore, who inherited the property in 1716 and died in 1750.

The 10th Earl of Chesterfield died in 1933, and his widow continued living at Beningbrough, where she established a stud farm and bred thoroughbred racehorses. Following her death in 1957 the majority of the house's contents were sold at auction, and the estate was subsequently acquired by the National Trust.