Lot 60

Believed to have been acquired by the great-great-uncle of the vendor, apparently in Australia
Thence by descent

Probably exhibited in Australia circa 1887–1888, possibly at the Centennial International Exhibition, Melbourne, 1 August, 1888–31 January, 1889

William Cottrell, Furniture of the New Zealand Colonial Era, An Ilustrated History 1830–1900 (Auckland, 2006), p. 421, image 21.43, referring to the series of cabinets of which the present lot is a part and illustrating the related secretaire cabinet in the Kauri Museum, Matakohe, NZ.

The present lot is one of a series of related cabinets apparently by the same maker working in Auckland in the 1870s and 1880s. A cabinet of identical form but with differences in its carved details and the supports flanking the knee hole is in the Kauri Museum, Matakohe, NZ, attributed to 'H.M. Gill' (inv. no. 1997.518.1-8). William Cottrell is aware of two further related cabinets: a cylinder-top desk with paw-footed monopod supports festooned with grapes similar to those of those of the Kauri Museum cabinet sold at auction in Auckland in 1991, and another sold at auction with Webb's in Auckland in the later 1990s. The cabinet sold at Webb's is said to have been signed 'H.M. Gill'.

Additionally, the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, holds a New Zealand specimen wood secretaire cabinet of different design also inscribed 'H.M. Gill', acquired by its donor from the estate of Justice Lydiard Wood, Springfield House, Adelaide in November 1991 (inv. no. 97/194/1).

No other record of 'H.M. Gill' has been traced and Mr Cottrell now believes these cabinets were probably all made by the Auckland maker Walter Bayne. Bayne is recorded in contemporary newspaper reports and advertisements as a cabinet-maker variously working for others and on his own account through the 1870s and 1880s and particularly for making specimen wood secretaire and similar cabinets of his own original design, some of which were exhibited in New Zealand and Australia in 1886, 1887, and 1888.

An article in the Auckland Star newspaper of 17 February, 1888, reporting the opening of that city's public art gallery refers in some detail to a recently-completed secretaire cabinet by Bayne exhibited on that occasion and shortly to be sent to the 'Melbourne Exhibition'. The correspondent's detailed description of the design of the cabinet and various of its parts – including the central counter-weighted downward-sliding panel with a carved medallion of ferns enclosing small drawers faced with specimen woods, the flanking doors carved with peas, and blue velvet lining – is seemingly identical in most respects with the present lot. The one specific difference between the description and the present cabinet is a reference to the 'claw of the pedestal … to which is affixed a [carved] bunch of grapes', apparently a reference to monopod supports like those flanking the knee hole on the Kauri Museum cabinet rather than the turned columns on the present cabinet. (Differences between the correspondent's description and the Kauri Museum cabinet seem to exclude the possibility that the article refers to that cabinet.)

Contemporary Australian newspaper reports indicate that, in addition to attracting attention and awards for his entry to the Melbourne Centennial Exhibition, Bayne also exhibited a 'lady's escritoire' at the 1887 Adelaide International Jubilee Exhibition (presumably a different cabinet from the recently-completed piece shown in Auckland in February 1888 and in Melbourne later that year).

We are grateful to William Cottrell for his very generous assistance with information used in cataloguing this lot.