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Lot Essay
This striking console with its magnificent late sixteenth century Roman inlaid-marble top was in the collection of one of Victorian England’s most renowned patron-connoisseurs, Alfred Morrison (1821-1897). The second son of the millionaire textile merchant and railway investor James Morrison, who was probably the richest commoner in the 19th century, Alfred inherited from his father both his fortune and a honed sense of the aesthetic. He devoted his substantial inheritance to amassing an encyclopedic collection at his Fonthill Estate, Wiltshire, and London home, 16 Carlton House Terrace.
Although Morrison is perhaps most well-known today for his collection of Chinese works of art of which many had come from the Summer Palace in Peking, his collection was astonishingly diverse. Morrison was a patron of contemporary artists such as Frederick, Lord Leighton and John Brett as well as the Spanish metalworker Placido Zuloaga. Their work sat alongside Old Master paintings, Persian carpets, sculpture, tapestries, lace and embroidery, coins and medals, Greek antiquities, autographs and letters as well as a rich array of custom and antique furniture. Morrison employed Owen Jones (1809-1874), one of the most influential and well-known designers of mid-nineteenth-century Britain to create a complete decorative scheme to display these treasures at Fonthill in 1862 and at Carlton House Terrace two years later. These interiors included designs for wall-silks, carpets and plasterwork, and, most importantly, for interior fitments, paneling and bespoke furniture to compliment his myriad treasures.
The console appears in the 1897 Fonthill inventory after Alfred’s death as ‘a small oblong Florentine table, of inlaid jasper onyx and colored marbles in white marble border, on carved and gilt stand, with figure of Cupid, fruit and scrolls’. It is also almost certainly partially visible in images of the Grand Salon taken in 1910. Though it is certainly possible that Alfred purchased the console, it is far more probable that it was either part of Fonthill’s contents when he inherited from his father in 1844 or among the contents of the Harley Street townhouse sent to Fonthill after James Morrison’s death in 1857. Alfred’s aesthetic reflected the fashion of the time, and he was largely known for commissioning furniture to form a backdrop to his various collections. In contrast, James Morrison’s taste was more along the lines of the newly rich and he chose to create interiors in line with his aristocratic contemporaries, focusing on traditional antique furniture and decoration.
However, the console’s construction creates the strongest link with James Morrison. Not only did he buy furniture at auctions and through various London dealers but he commissioned both Robert Hume, who also worked for the collector-connoisseur William Beckford as well as the architect-designer J.B. Papworth to create works that incorporated antique elements. In an 1845 letter to James Morrison, Papworth writes of tables ‘with tops that do not fit them nor indeed belong to them—but these I find on examination are solid verdantique and therefore valuable—when cleaned they would be effective furniture for Fonthill’ (C. Dakers, “Furniture and Interior Decoration for James and Alfred Morrison,” Furniture History, 2010, p. 193). This letter which documents the practice of reusing rare materials to form luxurious new objects aligns perfectly with the dating of this console’s English construction and its incorporation of a 16th century Roman inlaid marble top and an early 18th century Italian giltwood base.
This sumptuous inlaid marble top is an outstanding example of Roman commesso work from the end of the 16th or beginning of the 17th century and would have certainly attracted Papworth’s attention despite its reduction in size. Intriguingly, a related table top signed by Pietro Carli now at All Souls College, Oxford, was sold privately from Fonthill in 1936 (S. Swynfen Jervis and D. Dodd, Roman Splendour, English Arcadia, London, 2015, p. 45) which clearly illustrates that the present table top was not an anomaly in the collection. Commesso work featured rare marbles which in the present top includes the central demilune of richly figured alabastro fiorito, the border of translucent alabaster palmettes and brocatello di spagna with corners of bianco et nero marble. These materials, and in particular transluscent alabaster, appear in table tops by Jacopo Vignola (1507-73), who is now thought to have provided the designs for the celebrated table supplied to Alessandro Farnese circa 1565, now in the Metropolitan Museum, New York, as well as the All Souls College table top. At the time of their manufacture they attracted some of Rome’s greatest patrons such as Cardinal Giovanni Ricci of Montepulciano and Cosimo I Medici, whose fascination for the art of inlaying marbles led to the foundation of the celebrated Medici workshop by his son Ferdinando. As both Morrisons sought to continue this centuries old tradition of patronage and connoisseurship this connection would have created a welcome link with some of history’s most renowned collectors.
Christie’s would like to thank Caroline Dakers for her assistance in cataloguing this lot.
Although Morrison is perhaps most well-known today for his collection of Chinese works of art of which many had come from the Summer Palace in Peking, his collection was astonishingly diverse. Morrison was a patron of contemporary artists such as Frederick, Lord Leighton and John Brett as well as the Spanish metalworker Placido Zuloaga. Their work sat alongside Old Master paintings, Persian carpets, sculpture, tapestries, lace and embroidery, coins and medals, Greek antiquities, autographs and letters as well as a rich array of custom and antique furniture. Morrison employed Owen Jones (1809-1874), one of the most influential and well-known designers of mid-nineteenth-century Britain to create a complete decorative scheme to display these treasures at Fonthill in 1862 and at Carlton House Terrace two years later. These interiors included designs for wall-silks, carpets and plasterwork, and, most importantly, for interior fitments, paneling and bespoke furniture to compliment his myriad treasures.
The console appears in the 1897 Fonthill inventory after Alfred’s death as ‘a small oblong Florentine table, of inlaid jasper onyx and colored marbles in white marble border, on carved and gilt stand, with figure of Cupid, fruit and scrolls’. It is also almost certainly partially visible in images of the Grand Salon taken in 1910. Though it is certainly possible that Alfred purchased the console, it is far more probable that it was either part of Fonthill’s contents when he inherited from his father in 1844 or among the contents of the Harley Street townhouse sent to Fonthill after James Morrison’s death in 1857. Alfred’s aesthetic reflected the fashion of the time, and he was largely known for commissioning furniture to form a backdrop to his various collections. In contrast, James Morrison’s taste was more along the lines of the newly rich and he chose to create interiors in line with his aristocratic contemporaries, focusing on traditional antique furniture and decoration.
However, the console’s construction creates the strongest link with James Morrison. Not only did he buy furniture at auctions and through various London dealers but he commissioned both Robert Hume, who also worked for the collector-connoisseur William Beckford as well as the architect-designer J.B. Papworth to create works that incorporated antique elements. In an 1845 letter to James Morrison, Papworth writes of tables ‘with tops that do not fit them nor indeed belong to them—but these I find on examination are solid verdantique and therefore valuable—when cleaned they would be effective furniture for Fonthill’ (C. Dakers, “Furniture and Interior Decoration for James and Alfred Morrison,” Furniture History, 2010, p. 193). This letter which documents the practice of reusing rare materials to form luxurious new objects aligns perfectly with the dating of this console’s English construction and its incorporation of a 16th century Roman inlaid marble top and an early 18th century Italian giltwood base.
This sumptuous inlaid marble top is an outstanding example of Roman commesso work from the end of the 16th or beginning of the 17th century and would have certainly attracted Papworth’s attention despite its reduction in size. Intriguingly, a related table top signed by Pietro Carli now at All Souls College, Oxford, was sold privately from Fonthill in 1936 (S. Swynfen Jervis and D. Dodd, Roman Splendour, English Arcadia, London, 2015, p. 45) which clearly illustrates that the present table top was not an anomaly in the collection. Commesso work featured rare marbles which in the present top includes the central demilune of richly figured alabastro fiorito, the border of translucent alabaster palmettes and brocatello di spagna with corners of bianco et nero marble. These materials, and in particular transluscent alabaster, appear in table tops by Jacopo Vignola (1507-73), who is now thought to have provided the designs for the celebrated table supplied to Alessandro Farnese circa 1565, now in the Metropolitan Museum, New York, as well as the All Souls College table top. At the time of their manufacture they attracted some of Rome’s greatest patrons such as Cardinal Giovanni Ricci of Montepulciano and Cosimo I Medici, whose fascination for the art of inlaying marbles led to the foundation of the celebrated Medici workshop by his son Ferdinando. As both Morrisons sought to continue this centuries old tradition of patronage and connoisseurship this connection would have created a welcome link with some of history’s most renowned collectors.
Christie’s would like to thank Caroline Dakers for her assistance in cataloguing this lot.