Following the conclusion of Woolley and Wallis’ recent auction, Lot 35, the George II mahogany bureau cabinet, rose a little above their estimate of GBP400 – GBP600 (AUD744 – AUD1,115; USD506 – USD758), realising GBP700 (AUD1,344; USD 891)
The yew and elm comb back Windsor armchair, Lot 229, didn’t quite reach their pre-auction estimate of GBP1,000 – GBP1,500 (AUD1,858 – AUD 2,787; USD 1,264 – USD 1,896), selling for only GBP900 (AUD1,729; USD 1,146.
All plus buyer’s premium.
Jack Plane
Following the conclusion of Bonhams furniture auction, Lot 74, the George II mahogany card table, realised GBP2,304 (AUD4,410, USD2,911) plus buyer’s premium.
Lot 104, the George III mahogany serpentine commode, and Lot 117, the George III mahogany open armchair appear to have been passed in.
Jack Plane
The upcoming sale, Collections, Including Selected Items From The Estate of Lord Eden of Winton, will take place at Bonhams, Knightsbridge on Wednesday 28th of June 2023.
There are some splendid lots on offer, a few of which caught my eye: Lot 74, is a George II plum pudding mahogany card table with a pre-auction estimate of GBP2,000 – GBP3,000 (AUD3,716 – AUD5,573; USD2,556 – USD3,835).
Lot 74, a George II plum pudding mahogany card table, circa 1750. (Bonhams)
Lot 104 is a George III mahogany serpentine commode, attributed to Ince and Mayhew with a pre-auction estimate of GBP8,000 – GBP10,000 (AUD14,867 – AUD18,585; USD10,226 – USD12,782).
Lot 104, a George III mahogany serpentine commode, circa 1780. (Bonhams)
Lot 117 is a George III mahogany open armchair in the manner of Wright and Elwick with a pre-auction estimate of GBP4,000 – GBP6,000 (AUD7,435 – AUD11,152; USD5,113 – USD7,670).
Lot 117, a George III mahogany open armchair, circa 1760. (Bonhams)
Jack Plane
The upcoming Furniture, Works of Art and Clocks two-day sale will take place at Woolley and Wallis’ Old Sarum Galleries, beginning on Wednesday 5th July 2023.
There are numerous fine lots on offer, a few of which piqued my interest: Lot 35, is an unusual George II mahogany bureau cabinet with a pre-auction estimate of GBP400 – GBP600 (AUD744 – AUD1,115; USD506 – USD758).
Lot 35, a George II mahogany bureau cabinet, circa 1740-50. (Woolley and Wallis)
And Lot 229 is a yew and elm comb back Windsor armchair with front cabriole legs united by a crinoline stretcher. It carries a pre-auction estimate of GBP1,000 – GBP1,500 (AUD1,858 – AUD 2,787; USD 1,264 – USD 1,896).
Lot 229, a George III yew and elm comb back Windsor armchair. (Woolley and Wallis)
Jack Plane
That Orson Cart chap is tinkering again here!
Jack Plane
Not all bunnies come bearing chocolate. Natheless, happy Easter one and all.
Jack Plane
Following the conclusion of Woolley and Wallis’ recent auction, a set of George III Chippendale style padouk hanging shelves (lot 217) rose well above their estimate of GBP2,000 – GBP3,000 (AUD 3,725 – AUD5,588; USD2,490 – USD3,734), realising GBP10,000 (AUD18,629; USD 12,448) – plus buyer’s premium.
George III padouk hanging shelves, circa 1770. (Woolley and Wallis)
Jack Plane
Regular readers of this blog would be familiar with the furniture, silver and porcelain associated with serving and partaking of tea during the seventeenth-, eighteenth- and nineteenth-centuries, but many may not be aware of the fervor behind the fashionable drink.
China has a long history of cultivating and drinking tea dating back almost 3,000 years. The leaves of Camellia sinensis, a medium-sized evergreen shrub, are harvested and processed in a variety of ways to produce leaf tea.
In 1625, the trader Samuel Purchas, wrote how the Chinese prepared “… the powder of a certaine herbe called chia of which they put as much as a walnut shell may contain, into a dish of Porcelane, and drink it with hot water“.
Traders in the mid-seventeenth-century brought such teas as Bohea, Pekoe and Congo to Britain from the Chinese ports of Canton and Shanghai. The darker teas, Bohea and Pekoe, were considered the best varieties and Congo somewhat less so. Green tea was considered inferior and therefore cheaper. Of the green teas, Hyson (named after the first merchant of the East India Company to import tea into Britain) enjoyed broad popularity. The East India Company received their first shipment of tea (amounting to 143 pounds – 65 kilos) from their agent in Bantam in 1669.
In seventeenth-century North America, traders first introduced tea to the Dutch settlers in New Amsterdam however, it wasn’t initially too well received: “Some tried to serve it like spinach with salt and butter, others ate it on toasted bread”. [i]
Worse was still to befall the colonists.
Meanwhile in England, tea-drinking defined respectability amongst the aristocracy, spurring the importation and manufacture of all manner of tea paraphernalia. Chinese tea wares – essential to the ritual of drinking tea – were simultaneously imported along with tea. However, the cost of Chinese porcelain (figure 1) was colossally expensive, but English porcelain factories like Chelsea (fig.2), Worcester (figure 3), New Hall et al answered to the demand and produced delightful interpretations at a fraction of the price.
Fig. 1. Jean-Etienne Liotard, Still Life: Tea Set, circa 1783.
Fig.2. Chelsea tea service, circa 1755. (Brian Haughton Gallery)
Fig.3. Early Worcester octagonal Red Bull tea bowl, circa 1754. (Leslie Antiques)
Fig. 4. New Hall Teapot, circa 1782-87. (Juno Antiques)
Many forms of tea tables (fig. 5) and tea caddies (fig. 6) also proliferated.
Fig. 5. George II walnut tea table, circa 1740.
Fig. 6. George II burr oak tea caddy, circa 1740-50.
At its introduction, tea was prohibitively expensive to all but the gentility, due largely to the East India Company’s monopoly of the commodity and the Government’s high taxes on its importation.
Fig. 7. Joseph Van Aken, A Tea Party, circa 1720.
Fig. 8. Johann Zoffany, The Garden at Hampton House with Mr. and Mrs. David Garrick taking tea, circa 1762.
As is the world though, tea soon found its way onto the black market, making it affordable for the everyday man (figure 9).
Fig. 9. William Redmore Bigg, A Cottage Interior: An Old Woman Preparing Tea, circa 1730.
By the 1770s, all foreign tea had to be first imported into London by registered merchants to be levied before distribution to domestic and foreign markets. Several popular means of circumventing taxation were adopted by enterprising individuals: Genuine tea was frequently adulterated by the addition of various domestic tree buds including those of the ash, elder and hawthorn along with innumerable herbs and sheep faeces. Chamomile was an important addition in teas preferred by British women. Great fields of the stuff were grown in the South West of the country and harvested by specialized horse-drawn cutters (fig 10).
Fig. 10. Chamomile cutter along with a set of leather horse boots to help protect the valuable crop.
It was these exports of toxic and adulterated tea – as much as extortionately high taxes – to the North American colony that ultimately resulted in the Sons of Liberty (disguised as Mohawk Indians) boarding three ships in Boston Harbour and throwing 92,000 pounds of tea overboard in 1773.
Smuggling tea into Britain avoided the cripplingly high taxes and accounted for approximately 34% of domestic consumption. The practice flourished to the extent one commentator declared so many people were employed in smuggling that the country’s agriculture was suffering as a consequence.
Fig. 11. Giles Grinagain (pseud.), Loading A Smuggler.
Fig. 12. Thomas Rowlandson, Rigging Out a Smuggler.
The arse eventually fell out of the illegal tea trade in 1784 with the introduction of the Commutation Act, which slashed the tax on tea from 119% to 12.5%. Consequently, many former smugglers, with an intimate understanding of the tea trade, themselves, became bona fide tea merchants.
Jack Plane
[i] Israel, Andrea. Taking Tea. (New York: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1987.
Christopher Storb has just posted a well-illustrated monograph on the unseen, hastily prepared secondary surfaces of furniture and architectural woodwork.
Jack Plane
Cheers to everyone who took the time to read my posts over the past year, and a special thank you to those who commented on them.
Wishing everyone happiness, health and prosperity in 2023.
Jack Plane
Pegs and 'Tails 