A fine painted George III corner cabinet circa 1790, probably by Henry Clay

the top centred with a panel painted with a harpy, on a striped ground with leaf painted border, the frieze painted with anthema above a panelled door, centred by a painted classical scene after an engraving by D'Hancarville on a similar striped ground, with stylized paterae to each corner, on turned painted legs

The present lot was probably commissioned by Sir Nathaniel Acton for Livermere Hall, Suffolk
Transferred to Shrubland Park circa 1923 by the 5th Baron de Saumarez following the demolition of Livermere Hall;
Thence by descent to the 7th Baron de Saumarez

Henry Clay of Birmingham set up his business in 1772 when he took out a patent for a `new Improved Paper ware' which he used in the construction of furniture and other objects. Clay`s technique involved pasting together a number of sheets of paper, drying them, sawing them out and then planing them to produce a fine smooth surface which was then japanned and polished. In the case of furniture smooth sheets of this substance were then stuck onto the carcase of the furniture and stove dried and then decorated.

In about 1785 he moved his business to 18 King Street, Covent Garden and started to receive commissions from members of the aristocracy such as the Dukes of Bedford and Northumberland, Robert Child of Osterley, Lord Scarsdale of Kedleston and Horace Walpole of Strawberry Hill where in the Descripton... (1784) there is mention of a Clays-ware writing table highly varnished with blue and white ornaments in a Gothic pattern designed by Paul Sandby. Besides this, Walpole was also known to have possessed `A Tea Chest of Clays-ware painted with loose feathers'.  

He was also patronised by King George III, Queen Charlotte and the Prince of Wales and indeed described himself on his trade card as `Japanner in Ordinairy to His Majesty and His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales'. He continued in Covent Garden until his death in 1812.

Today Clay is best known for his magnificent tea caddies, tea wares and trays, and pieces of furniture which can be attributed to him are rare  and would have been important commissions at the t.mes . Besides the Strawberry Hill pieces other known pieces are a Pembroke table which was supplied for the Etruscan room at Osterley, Middlesex, where it is described in an inventory of 1782 as `A Pembroke table richly Japanned by Clay'.  This piece can be seen illustrated in Maurice Tomlin, Catalogue of Adam Period Furniture, The Victoria and Albert Museum, p.84, pl.J/5. A further example can be seen in Christie`s sale of Important English Furniture in London, 24th November 2005, lot 50, a pair of papier mãché pier tables known to have been supplied to 4th Earl of Bristol by Clay.

The offered lot is also in the Etruscan style, a style in which Clay specialised and which became popular in the last quarter of the 18th century, reaching its zenith in Robert Adam`s designs for the Countess of Derby`s Dressing Room at Derby House, Grosvenor Square (1773-4), and the Etruscan Dressing Room at Osterley Park, Middlesex (1775-6). As Adam observed , the style was `...imitated from the vases and urns of the Etruscans', of which there was no more famous collects ion than that of Sir William Hamilton, Britain`s Envoy to Naples, which was published by D`Hancarville in four volumes, the earliest of which appeared in 1766. 

The Osterley table has similar borders and classical figures to that on the present lot. Christopher Gilbert in The Pictorial Dictionary of Marked London Furniture 1700-1840, p. 141, pl.202, 1996, illustrates  a tea caddy stamped CLAY with strikingly similar  decoration. He also illustrates a tray on p.142, pl.205 also stamped Clay which has the same distinctive stripe and a border identical to the inner border on the offered lot.

For a further discussion on Clay see The Furniture History Society, 'A Recent Discovery of Two Papier Mâché Pier Tables by Henry Clay', Yvonne Jones, May 2006.