Rosewood and ebony wardrobe, Flemish, 17th century

Wardrobe composed of a cupboard enclosed by two doors with raised centres carved with festoons and berries; in the centre is an applied half-column with capital carved with cherubs heads and leaf work, and a similar half column on each side, the centre one sliding and concealing the keyhole. Above the cupboard is a frieze carved with a cherub's head and scroll foliage, and the whole is surmounted by a heavily moulded cornice enriched with lions heads, cherubs heads and a cartouche. In the base are two drawers with knob handles.

Bequeathed by Lady Macleay

Bequeathed by Lady Macleay (58, The Drive, Hove) per H.D. Roberts, Public Library, Museum and Fine Art Gallery, Brighton (RF 19/2871); "Flemish 17th century"
Condition: 'in 8 pieces + 2 coat-rails', 'slightly worn'. 'The cornice ... chipped, but not obviously lately.'
The wardrobe was said in 1917 to have been 'made at Luxembourg a hundred years or more ago...made of ebony and ringwood [sic perhaps for king wood]...panels outlined with what Lady Macleay calls ripple-work'. A photograph [RF] of the piece was given to the museum at the time that its acquisiton was being considered, and this was considered adequate basis for accepting it, without an inspection being deemed necessary. Memos note that this type is 'very cumbersome' but as it did not possess an example of the type 'we should hardly be justified in declining'. Oliver Bracket further commented in 1918, after a year in which nothing more had happened about the gift, that 'in my opinion, we could very well do without ths bulky piece of furniture'.

W.27:1-1919