This may give me away as something of a swot, but my favorite part of the trade in English antiques is that it does keep me in touch, literally and historically, with the material culture of the 18th century. With trying to run a gallery open to the public, often this enjoyment is vicarious, but none more so than reading Adam Bowett’s Early Georgian Furniture: 1715-1740 just published by The Antique Collector’s Club. A follow-on from Adam’s indispensible English Furniture: 1660-1714, the books taken together provide an examination of furniture development from the political and economic instability at the accession of Charles II to the world power the country had become by the middle of the reign of George II. This critical period saw the development of a national style, with London a style centre less dependent on aping the Parisian luxury trades.
But both books are really only obliquely about stylistic development and rather more about the important task of putting surviving pieces of high style English furniture in correct date order, taking as much as possible a strictly empirical approach- pieces are dated, and attributed, based on surviving documentary evidence. It is with this that Adam Bowett seeks to overcome the inaccuracies perpetuated by both collectors and members of the trade who should know better.
Quite a few members of the accredited trade do know better, but continue to reduce their speech to include largely empty shorthand phrases like ‘Queen Anne style’ or ‘Chippendale style’. While I cannot argue with any of the conclusions drawn by Adam Bowett in Early Georgian Furniture, it is a plain fact that in common with other dealers Chappell & McCullar would like to remain a going concern and, consequently, would find it difficult, for the sake of historic scrupulosity, to risk intellectually leaving our clients behind. To the chagrin of my long suffering partner Keith McCullar, I will at times bore a client rigid by launching into an unbidden lecture on 18th century material culture when all the client really wants to know is if the Pembroke table will fit next to the sofa. What Keith has found, as a number of others know, is that certain phrases constitute a comfortable patois that, times being the way they are, we will continue to use if the client wants it that way. To thine own self be true…
Don’t think, however, that, because of my stamp of approval, Early Georgian Furniture is a tome. Large in size, yes, but textually very accessible, and profusely illustrated with pieces in public collections and those that have passed through the trade mostly in the last few years. Really, a must have that a devotee of English furniture of any stripe will both enjoy and find useful.