Beschreibung:

A George II style mahogany library bookcase , the broken arch pediment with egg and dart mouldings and a central platform for a bust or vase flanked by acanthus scrolls with eagle head terminals, the pair of panelled astragal doors enclosing adjustable shelves, the lower part with a Vitruvian scroll-carved waist moulding incorporating a pair of book rests, the lower part with two pairs of articulated fielded-panel cupboard doors each enclosing a drawer and a shelf, on a plinth with a ribbon-and-rosette carved border, with associated bust, 283cm high, 208cm wide, 54cm deep Provenance: Bought by R.W. Symonds for Geoffrey Blackwell. James Kenneth Weir, 2nd Viscount Weir of Eastwood CBE Acquired by the present owner, anonymous sale, Christie's London, 12 March 1981, lot 108 Literature: R.W. Symonds, 'Furniture in the Collection of Mr Geoffrey Blackwel', Apollo, April 1936, pp. 192-4, fig. II P. Macquoid and R. Edwards, The Dictionary of English Furniture, London, 1954, vol. 1, p. 83, fig. 11. R.W. Symonds 'A Fine Pair of Library Bookcases', Country Life, 29 May 1958, pp. 1176-7, fig. 1 P. Macquoid and R. Edwards, The Shorter Dictionary of English Furniture, London, rev. ed., 1964, p.53, fig. 7. The present bookcase is designed in the Roman style first promoted by the architect Inigo Jones (d. 1637) and later adopted by Richard Boyle 3 rd Earl of Burlington and his circle including William Kent The centre of the pediment features Jupiter eagles flanking a bracket intended for the display of a bust. The design is shares similarities, in respect of its pediment and glazing bars with a Tuscan bookcase pattern of 1739, illustrated in Batty Langley's Treasury of Designs: or the Art of Drawing and Working the ornamental parts of Architecture , London, 1745, pl. 58. The eagles to the centre of the pediment are paralleled in Langley's design for a chimney-piece in Gothic Architecture Improv'd by Rules and Proportions, 1742 (pl. 47). The present bookcase sold Christie's 12 March 1981, lot 108, forming one of three lots (106-108) designated as 'The Property of a Nobleman'. Lot 106, another bookcase of a very similar design, was purchased by Geoffrey's Blackwell's son John. The latter catalogued as A George II mahogany bookcase, circa 1740, with minor alterations sold more recently (Euro 277,050) Christie's Antwerp, 'Axel Vervoordt', 10-12 May 2004, lot 110 with provenance: possibly supplied to the Fermor family, Tusmore, Oxfordshire and possibly sold with the house to the 2nd Earl of Effingham (d. 1889).