Enfilade

From Mallett:

The Age of Elegance: Treasures from the Eighteenth-Century Town House
Mallett, Ely House, London, 18 June — 20 July 2013

We are delighted to announce a special collaboration between Mallett and the world-renowned Old Masters dealer, Colnaghi. The exhibition will show the importance of the 18th-century town house as a site of display for the finest paintings and furniture. Set in the London showrooms of Mallett, the magnificent former palace of the Bishop of Ely built in 1770 to the designs of Sir Robert Taylor, this special event will show a series of rooms hung and decorated to recreate the splendours of a bygone era.

In the 18th century, the first in the hierarchy of rooms would have been the Saloon, containing the finest gilt furniture and hung with what Lord Chesterfield termed “capital pictures.” Among the works to be displayed in the Saloon of Ely House are Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini’s Sophinsba and Susannah and the Elders, which relate to an important series painted for nearby Burlington House. Still lifes will be featured in the dining room, while the Cabinet will be hung with smaller-scale pictures from the Northern Schools. The entrance hall will be dominated by an equestrian portrait by Louis Rolland Trinquesse, painted for presentation by the sitter Charles Grant to his
kinsman Sir James Grant.

Attributed to Sefferin Nelson (1739-97), after designs by Henry Holland, Giltwood Trophy, ca. 1795

Mallett will present a number of important pieces, including a pair of magnificent commodes, made by Mayhew and Ince for the home of Robert Birch in Donabate, Co. Dublin, and impaled with his coat of arms. Amongst other highlights will be a magnificent pair of giltwood settees in the manner of Thomas Chippendale, a set of twelve armchairs made by François Hervé and supplied to George John 2nd Earl Spencer in 1791, and a giltwood wall trophy attributed to Sefferin Nelson (1739-97) after designs by Henry Holland. This trophy was one of a series made for Carlton House, the former residence of George IV when Prince of Wales.

Carlton House will also be the subject of a special lecture given to accompany the exhibition by Desmond Shawe-Taylor, Surveyor of the Queen’s Pictures, on Sunday 30th June (please contact us for details).

The exhibition brochure is available here»