Small writing-cabinet (or sécretaire) on four cabriole legs, mounted with porcelain plaques. Paris or London, ca. 1860

Small cabinet, on four cabriole legs. The case is of oak and softwood with drawers of walnut and oak. The case is veneered with bloodwood and purplewood.

The cabinet is fitted with a single frieze drawer, above a fall-front. When lowered, the fall-front forms a writing surface. Behind the fall-front are five small drawers. A seventh, larger drawer, is fitted below the fall-front.

The case is mounted with six porcelain plaques. The largest rectangular plaque, on the fall-front, is painted with a scene of a military camp. Below this are an oval and two oblong plaques, painted with military trophies and flowers. The circular plaque on each side of the case is painted with two interlaced wreaths. The gilt-brass mounts are festoons of laurel with ribbons, bands of ornament, and an open gallery at the top.

Bequeathed by John Jones

This is one of two sécretaires, of similar form, bequeathed to the V&A in 1882 as part of the John Jones collection (the museum number of the other sécretaire is 1048-1882).

John Jones was a military tailor who had a large and important collection of 18th- century French paintings, sculpture and decorative art. Reflecting the great fashion for French furniture among 19th-century collectors and cabinet-makers, Jones also owned a number of reproductions of 18th-century furniture, as well as contemporary objects made in an 18th-century style.

A version of this cabinet or its pair (1048-1882) was illustrated in an engraving of 'A Corner of the Sinclair Galleries' in Two Centuries of Soho. Its Institutions, Firm and Amusements by the Clergy of St Anne's, Soho by JH Cardwell, HR Freeman and GC Wilton, published in London by Truslove and Hanson, 1898, p. 193. The text was probably supplied by Frederick Litchfield, the writr on furniture history who had bought the Sinclair Galleries in 1895 and continued to run it until his retirement in 1903. The the image as printed is identified as 'From Litchfield's History of Furniture' [the Illustrated History of Furniture From the Earliest to the Present Time was published by Truslove and Hanson in 1892 and went into many editions but this image has not been traced in the 1899 edition. Litchfield's book has been reprinted many times and one of the reprints uses an image of such a secretaire in the centre of the soft cover of the book, possibly the image of 1048-1882

This sécretaire uses a mid-18th-century French form. In the 18th century sécretaires such as this were designed as personal writing furniture - the case is fitted with a lockable fall-front which can be used as a writing surface. Behind this fall-front are small drawers to hold writing implements and letters. This object was made in Paris or London in about 1860, as part of a revival of the mid-18th century Rococo style.

1047:1-1882