Cabinet (meuble à hauteur d'appui), veneered in mahogany, with gilt-brass mounts, two in the form of winged sphinxes, the single door of the cabinet set with a gilt-brass mount of a laurel wreath enclosing a lyre; the cabinet is fitted with two shelves. The white marble slab is a replacement, probably of the early 20th century.

Cabinet (meuble à hauteur d'appui), veneered in mahogany, with gilt-brass mounts, two in the form of winged sphinxes, the single door of the cabinet set with a gilt-brass mount of a laurel wreath enclosing a lyre. The pilasters headed by the sphinxes are carved at the base with paw feet. The frieze of the cabinet is set with a central rosette in gilt-brass, flanked by symmetrical curving mounts composed of anthemia motifs. The cabinet is fitted with two shelves. The white marble slab is a replacement, probably of the early 20th century.

The Bettine, Lady Abingdon Collection. Bequeathed by Mrs T. R. P. Hole

Part of a large group of pieces of French furniture, ceramics, metalwork, books and other decorative arts, from the late Empire period and earlier, acquired in Paris by Sir Charles Stuart (from 1828 1st Lord Stuart de Rothesay) (1779-1845).The Empire furnishings were probably purchased during his first period as ambassador to Paris (1815-1824), the earlier furnishings during his second embassy (1828-1830). The Empire furnishings, which included many pieces that had belonged to the famous hero Marechal Ney, may have been intended for 4 Carlton House Terrace which he acquired in the late 1820s and moved into in 1834. Older pieces were probably purchased for his country house, Highcliffe Castle, Hampshire (now Dorset), which was re-modelled and enlarged in the most ambitious Gothic style from 1830-1834, with some work continuing throughout the 1830s. In 1841 the Carlton Terrace House was let. The family moved their London residence to Whitehall Yard. It was possibly in 1841 (or 1845, the date of Lord Stuart de Rothesay's death) that the Empire furnishings were moved to Highcliffe.
Lord Stuart de Rothesay's collections were inherited in 1845 by his wife Elisabeth, Lady Stuart de Rothesay (née Yorke). After her death, Highcliffe House and its contents passed to his second daughter, Louisa, Lady Waterford (1818-1891) who maintained Highcliffe. She left the house and its collections to her distant cousin, Major-General Edward Stuart Wortley (1857-1934). When his younger daughter Elizabeth ('Bettine') married Montagu Bertie, 8th Earl of Abingdon in 1928, he bought the castle and its contents from his father-in-law. The Abingdons sold Highcliffe and most of its contents in 1949 but retained a number of pieces, including all those which later formed the Hole Bequest to the V&A. After her husband's death in 1963, Lady Abingdon lived much of the time with her close friends, Mr and Mrs Tahu Hole, to whom she bequeathed all her personal possessions on her death in 1978. Tahu Hole died in 1985 and a year later his widow Joyce approached the Museum and offered the collection as a bequest. She died in December 1986 and, in accordance with her will, the Museum chose those items that it wished to add to its collections. Other items from the collection were sold to benefit the Museum and the proceeds added to the funds bequeathed.

It is possible that this piece was made for Maréchal Ney; in the Pièce servante..Petit Salon at the Hôtel de Saisseval there was recorded in the Inventaire après décès of Ney a 'Petit armoire en acajou, figures égyptiennes'. That piece is described as having a top in red Italian marble, a colouring much more suited to this handsome piece, which has clearly lost its original slab. It is tempting to relate this object to some of the seat furniture from the Hole bequest (W. 2a, b, c-1987, W.10a&b-1987, W.4a&b-1987). Certainly the treatment of the Egyptian heads is very close to that on the two bergères, W.2a,b,c-1987, allowing for the difference in scale.

Historical significance: This cabinet is of a standard Empire form but the quality of the craftsmanship is of the highest found among the regular productions of the Jacob-Desmalter workshop.

The large mount of the wreath had been used earlier by Jacob and Frères for a large library cabinet and is found on two filing cabinets (serre-papiers) by Jacob-Desmalter supplied in 1810 for the Emperor's grand cabinet at the Grand Trianon. The small floret mounts found on the pilasters (and which also occur on W. 2a, b, c-1987 and W.10a&b-1987) occur very widely on furniture by Jacob-Desmalter. The main frieze mount is found on a number of pieces by Jacob-Desmalter at the Palais de Compiègne. It is also found on a jewel cabinet supplied by Jacob-Desmalter in 1810 for the cabinet de toilette of the Empress Marie-Louise at the Tuileries. The roundel mounts above the Egyptian heads have lost their centres but in a list made in 1978 on the death of Lady Abingdon, these were recorded as lion's head mounts.

Attribution note: CONDITION Generally sound. Some pulling visible on the inner and outer surfaces of the door. The centre sections are missing from the mounts at each end of the frieze.

The firm of Jacob-Desmalter made this small cabinet about 1805. Georges Jacob had already been producing furniture of high quality before the French Revolution of 1789, when the monarchy was overthrown. He subsequently formed a new partnership with his younger son. The family's furniture business, under the name Jacob-Desmalter, became one of the most prosperous and important in Paris in the early 1800s.

Jacob-Desmalter may have made this piece for Maréchal Ney (1769-1815), who was one of the emperor Napoleon's most famous military leaders. It is of standard Empire form with elaborate gilt-bronze mounts in classical and Egyptian styles. But the quality of the craftsmanship is much higher than most other regular productions of the Jacob-Desmalter workshop. The slab of white marble is a replacement. The original may have been made of red Italian marble.

W.21:1 to 3-1987