Code: 11376
Superb and unusual inlaid oak Arts & Crafts sideboard cabinet (can come apart two sections) with pre-raphaelite style fairy story painted panels.
Fabulous Burges style domed finials and strap metalwork.
Design strongly attributed to JS Chapple (1840-1922) after William Burges; c1880s
John Starling Chapple was born in Exeter, the son of a carpenter.
Amongst other capacities, he was the office manager and clerk of works for the architect, William Burges.
Indeed, he was close to him and was his executor.
He completed and/or enlarged several of Burges’s last commissions, including a return to Dover, where he extended Burges’s town hall in 1894.
He also designed furniture for Burges.
Amongst his commissions was work at St Michael's & All Angels Church in Brighton and may well have had private clients there.
This piece was bought privately from a deceased estate and they had originally acquired from an antiques dealer in Brighton back in the 1950's.......
Each Walter Crane style painted image relates to the fairy story (Careless Kyts aka Jolly Kyts).
Inside the doors there is a written page/section from the story, so most probably this piece was a specifically commissioned one.
There is an out of print book "Careless Kyts and Other Stories" by one Charles Marshall but apparently sadly contains no useful illustrations!
Dimensions approx as follows:
Overall height 70"; comprised of 37" height of lower section and 33" upper section, in case it needs to come apart for delivery etc.
Overall width: 71"; depth 22"
My thanks to Paul Reeves for his kind assistance with the research.
