From Fine Furniture and Objects, April 2018, this fine mid-Victorian satinwood, tulipwood, harewood and parcel gilt marquetry side cabinet is attributed to the renowned firm of Wright and Mansfield. It bears gilt bronze mounts and green Wedgwood Jasperware medallions and relates closely to the celebrated cabinet by Wright and Mansfield held in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A Museum No. 548-1868) which was shown at the 1867 Paris Exposition Universelle where it was awarded a gold medal. With its overtly neo-classical style and Robert Adam inspired decoration the V&A Wright and Mansfield cabinet features the same stylised strapwork outer-banding to the doors, the same neo-classical hanging lamps in the marquetry, the use of diamond shaped Wedgwood Jasperware panels, the same central Wedgwood Jasperware panel depicting frolicking putti and the presence of the winged figure who in the V&A cabinet appears in an oval panel in the lower part of the piece.
Wright and Mansfield was founded in the middle years of the 19th century by Alfred Wright, a successful cabinet maker and Thomas Mansfield, a decorator. Their work received much attention at the International Exhibitions of the era and the company was one of the most noted exponents of Revival furniture in the second half of the 19th century. On the closure of the business in 1886 the magazine The Cabinet Maker & Art Furnisher called to mind ‘the renowned eighteenth century cabinet makers… the best forms of Chippendale, Hepplewhite and particularly Sheraton’ who had ‘been made to live again under the renovating influence of these able manufacturers’.
By the time of the Paris Exposition in 1867 Wright and Mansfield were well aware of the marketing opportunities afforded by such exhibitions and they presented the satinwood and marquetry cabinet inset with blue and white Wedgwood plaques. It was the only piece of furniture at the Exposition to win a gold medal. The V&A Museum bought the piece, at a reduced price, to assist in teaching and it stood in contrast with the darker furniture favoured at the time. The cabinet was credited with illustrating ‘English art in every respect’ and its Wedgwood plaques are recognised to have popularised their use in furniture design of the time.
Although of extremely high quality the cabinet is not stamped by the firm as was commonplace in the middle years of the 19th century for items of furniture that were direct commissions for clients, whereas pieces destined to be retailed in showrooms often did bear manufacturers’ stamps or labels.
This superb cabinet undoubtedly resides with some of the best pieces of 19th century Revival Furniture.