Very Large Inlaid Cabinet in the 'Moresque-Greek' manner, designed by Owen Jones
English, 19th Century
Made by Jackson & Graham, of various woods, including ebony, purpleheart, holly and sycamore. Circa 1865-70.
Height 11' 4½" (3,47m).
Width 7' 10½" (2,40m).
Depth 25¾" (65.5 cm).
Provenance :- Alfred Morrison (1821-1897), 16 Carlton House Terrace, London.
Illustrated :-
Caroline Dakers, 'Furniture and Interior Decoration for James and Alfred Morrison', Furniture History, Vol. XLVI, 2010, fig. 22, p. 207.
Kathryn Ferry, 'A Revolutionary in the Art of Colour', Country Life, 28th October 2009, p. 66.
Alfred Morrison, the great 19th Century collector and owner of the Fonthill estate, commissioned Owen Jones (1809-1874) to design the interiors of his London house, 16 Carlton House Terrace. The house was designed by Morton Peto and built between 1863 and 1866, continuing Nash's terrace overlooking St. James' Park. The interior of the house was treated in the same manner as this cabinet, using the same woods and design scheme. A contemporary description, noted, ‘...the doors, wainscots, and many suites of furniture throughout the house are made of the finest marquetrie in inlaid natural woods' (Mrs Haweis, Beautiful Houses, 1882, p. 54). All of the work was undertaken by the firm of Jackson & Graham, who exhibited some of the pieces of furniture at the Vienna International Exhibition of 1873 and the London International Exhibition of 1874. The fine locks in the lower part of the present cabinet are recorded in the Chubb Archives as having been supplied on 15th September 1869, which is consistent with the date of this commission. Furthermore, the central arch of the cabinet is duplicated in the architecture of the interior of the house, in the shape of the door-cases and chimney-pieces. The ground floor Library chimneypiece surround has almost identical pilasters, topped by acroteria.
One small panel from the Library of 16 Carlton House Terrace is now in the Victoria & Albert Museum and another is in the Minneapolis Institute of Art. Other Owen Jones designed inlaid furniture from the house includes a pair of armchairs, one in the Art Institute of Chicago, the other in the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh. This cabinet is the largest piece of furniture known from this commission, and the largest piece known by Owen Jones. The height of the lower part is consistent with the height of the dado in the first floor rooms of 16 Carlton House Terrace, and it is tempting to identify it with the following piece of furniture described by Mrs. Haweis (op. cit., p. 59), 'One of the most curious features of the house - an enormous cabinet, filled with a pretentious service of Minton's ware - occupies one wall of the room'.
Owen Jones (1809-1874) is a key figure in the history of design, probably best known for his enormously influential compendium of Eastern and Western motifs, The Grammar of Ornament (1856).
