Fine William IV Side Cabinet in the manner of Crace & Sons
A fine William IV side cabinet in the manner of Crace & Sons, the white marble top with canted front corners above an ormolu egg-and-dart border over a bank of four drawers faced by japanned paper maché panels and above a pair of cupboards doors, also faced with japanned papier maché panels. The mahogany sides with ormolu carrying handles and raised on urned feet.
In 1826, at the age of seventeen, John Gregory Crace began to work at the family firm with his father Frederick. During the late 1820s and early 1830s he travelled extensively in France, sometimes in company with his father, and kept copious notes and diaries of all he saw. In 1830 he came of age, inheriting a substantial part of his mother’s estate, and this allowed him to become a full partner in the firm.
If the present cabinet does come from the firm of Crace, and it’s certainly of a design and quality that would permit such an attribution, it seems to follow in the tradition of the japanned cabinets produced by Frederick Crace, often with panels of paper maché as well as japanned tôle in the Pontypool manner (see attached images), but now up-dated by John Gregory and influenced by all he had seen in France