A wardrobe of pine, with double doors, painted white, with Chinoiserie decoration in green, on panels with incurved corners decorated with neo-classical paterae (rosetttes).

A wardrobe of pine, with double doors, painted white, with Chinoiserie decoration in green, on panels with incurved corners decorated with neo-classical paterae (rosetttes). Only one side of the wardrobe is decorated, suggesting that it was designed to stand in a corner. The Proper Left compartment is fitted with shelves and the Proper Right, which occupies only half the depth of the wardrobe, is fitted with pegs from which to hang clothes. Behind this there is a compartment that is reached by a narrow door at the back of the decorated side of the wardrobe, containing deep drawers and a secret drawer.

Acquired through the generosity of H. E. Trevor, Esq., with the co-operation of some admirers of David Garrick

Made in the London workshops of Thomas Chippendale (born in Otley, West Yorkshire, 1718, died in London, 1779) for the actor David Garrick (1717-1779) for the Chinese bedroom at his Thames-side villa at Hampton, Middlesex, about fourteen miles west of London. Chippendale had also supplied furniture for his town house in the Adelphi. Garrick had purchased a ready-furnished villa at Hampton in 1754. In 1757 the fashionable artist Jean Pillement decorated the drawing room with festive Chinoiserie panels. In 1765 the architect Robert Adam (1728-1792) re-modelled the house. Chippendale worked for Garrick at Hampton for at least ten years, from 1768 (or possibly earlier). Bills from Chippendale in 1768-1769 record work on re-furbishing furniture that Chippendale may have supplied earlier. It is clear from later correspondence (including complaints from Mrs Garrick) that Chippendale continued to work on the house and records show that Garrick preferred the light painted decoration such as found on this wardrobe and its related pieces (W.70-1916 and W.21-1917 to W. 32-1917), rather than heavily gilded finishes. The furnishings of the Chinese Bedroom are recorded in an inventory of 1779, following the death of David Garrick.

After Garrick's death, his wife retired to the villa, although she retained the Adelphi house. When she died in 1822 at the age of 98, the contents of the Adelphi house were auctioned. The villa was sold by Garrick's trustees to Thomas Carr, his widow's solicitor, who also purchased many of the contents when they were auctioned in 1823. On Carr's death in 1838, the villa and the heirlooms it contained were bought by Sylvanus Phillips and in 1861 it passed to his son who finally sold off the contents in 1864, when it was purchased by H. Hill. Mr H.E. Trevor, who was instrumental in organising the donation of the furniture to the V&A was a descendant of David Garrick's brother George. This wardrobe was part of a large donation of furniture from Garrick's bedroom (plus an additional press bed).Inventory numbers W.21 to W.32-1917. The bed had already been donated to the Museum (W.70-1916). In 1994 the Museum was also give one of the pair of small bookcases from this room (W.14-1994).

Object Type
This clothes press is divided vertically into two sections closed by hinged doors. The left side is fitted with shelves and the right with a shallow hanging cupboard. A door in the side conceals a set of drawers and a secret drawer. It was designed for a particular location in the room so that the side door was accessible.

Place
This clothes press and its pair are listed in the inventory of the contents of David Garrick's villa at Hampton, Middlesex (now south-west London) in 1779. Other pieces supplied by Thomas Chippendale (1718-1779) included a dressing table (now at Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire), a pair of cabinet bookcases, a corner cupboard and a bed. They were in the dressing room.

David and Eva Garrick acquired their riverside retreat at Hampton in 1754. The existing villa was improved by Robert Adam (1728-1792) and the grounds were laid out by Lancelot 'Capability' Brown, which included a domed temple containing a statue of William Shakespeare by Louis Fran‡ois Roubiliac (1702-1762). The villa's interiors were furnished by Chippendale from 1768 to 1778 with painted furniture in a Chinoiserie style.

Ownership & Use
In 1778 Mrs Garrick complained to Chippendale in a letter that the green and white bedroom furniture was overpriced. She wrote that the decoration cost twice as much as the furniture itself. This suggests that the furniture was ordered before 1775 but decorated after 1775, when the Indian chintz bedhangings had arrived safely.

W.22:1 to 8-1917