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Secretaire-Cabinet
The design attributed to B.J. Talbert (1838-81)
Maufactured by Holland & Sons (1843-1942)
Oak with harewood and satinwood inlays; with the original leather writing surface and brass hardware
631/4 in (160.6 cm) x 30 1/2in (77.5 cm) x 181/2 in (47cm)
English (London), circa 1870
MARKED:
Stamped 'HOLLAND & SONS' on top of proper left door
PROVENANCE:
[…]; Fine Art society, 1988; private collection London.
While Talbert's involvemement with Holland & Sons is well established, with the exception of furniture shown by the firm at the Paris Exposition Universelle, 1867 (such as the Pericles Cabinet, private collection), what else he designed for the firm is less well documented. Such information as has been gleaned about Talbert's connection with Holland & Sons is given in Sally MacDonald, 'Gothic Forms Applied to Furniture: The Early Work of Bruce James Talbert, Furniture History XXIII 1987, pp. 39-66.
Elements of Talbert's earlier and more muscular gothic style, evident on the present secretaire-cabinet, can be observed in plates in his Gothic Forms Applied to Furniture Metal Work and Decoration for Domestic Purposes, London, 1868. The slanted roof relates closely to one of the two cabinets in plate 7. Similarites can also be found on a 'golden oak' chest of drawers by Holland & Sons in a private collection; see MacDonald, op. cit., fig. 7. A group of large and smaller oak and inlaid buffets are amongst the best-known Talbert-designed creations for Holland & Sons; see H. Blairman & Sons, Furniture and Works of Art (1999), no. 12 for one now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
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