Description & Technical information

This highly unusual chest of drawers relates to furniture supplied by the Channon brothers to Powderham Castle in Devon. The distinctive carved base in particular relates to a massive table with comparable feet invoiced by Otho Channon. The unusual handles are discussed by Christopher Gilbert and Tessa Murdoch and belong to the Nymph and Satyr group. They were predominantly used by John Channon, but his furniture is less carved, and therefore an attribution to his brother Otho seems more likely.

The chest of drawers retains all the original metalwork. An oval veneer patch in the top veneer seems to be original to the piece. The inner frame of the stand has been at one stage restored, retaining the original outer surfaces.

Date:  1740
Period:  George II
Origin:  English
Medium: Rosewood
Dimensions: 105.5 x 121 x 65.5 cm (41¹/₂ x 47⁵/₈ x 25³/₄ inches)
Provenance: Collection of H. Oatway, England.
Private collection, USA.
Literature: Illustrated: Percy Macquoid, A History of English Furniture, vol. III, ‘The Age of Mahogany’, 1906, p. 146, fig. 128.
F. Lewis Hinckley, A Directory of Antique Furniture, 1953, p. 242, illus. 763.
Geoffrey Beard and Christopher Gilbert, The Dictionary of English Furniture Makers 1660-1840, 1986, p. 156.
F. Lewis Hinckley, Metropolitan Furniture of the Georgian Years, 1988, p. 45, illus. 19.
Christopher Gilbert and Tessa Murdoch, John Channon and Brass-Inlaid Furniture 1730-1760, 1993, p. 97, illus.111.
Categories: Furniture