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Secretary bookcase

Secretary bookcase
 (c. 1790)

Medium
wood, West Indian Satinwood (Zanthoxylum flavum), painted West Indian Satinwood (Zanthoxylum flavum), metal, gilt-metal, mirror, brass, fabric, gilt-wood, Scots Pine (Pinus sylvestris), Mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla), Limewood (Tilia sp.)
Measurements
(a-w) 262.2 × 155.1 × 56.0 cm (overall)
Place/s of Execution
England
Inscription
(e) inscribed in pencil on interior base l.l.: SW
(m) inscribed in pencil on top l.c.: X
Accession Number
3055.a-w-D3
Department
International Decorative Arts
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Felton Bequest, 1929
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of Digitisation Champion Ms Carol Grigor through Metal Manufactures Limited
Gallery location
Not on display
About this work

This elegant secretary bookcase in the Neoclassical style is veneered with satinwood imported from the West Indies. The refined features of the cabinet – the play on rectangular forms that project and recede, the use of the oval motif, the elegantly carved scrollwork and vase pediments – are all indications that it was made by a leading London workshop. This cabinet has traditionally been associated with Lady Emma Hamilton, wife of Sir William Hamilton, and is reputed to have come from their villa in Naples.
Sir William Hamilton was the British Ambassador to the Kingdom of Naples from 1764 to 1800. There he indulged his twin passions for vulcanology and ancient vases, which he set about acquiring immediately upon his appointment. Hamilton was an obsessive collector and later owned the famous Roman glass Portland vase, which he sold to the Duchess of Portland, from whose son Josiah Wedgwood borrowed it to create his famous Wedgwood copies. There are two first-edition Portland vases by Wedgwood in the NGV Collection. Hamilton’s second collection of ancient vases was sold in 1801 to the leading London designer Thomas Hope, whose pair of pole firescreens in the adjacent gallery graced the drawing room of Hamilton’s London residence, quite possibly in the same room as his vase collection.