A Victorian satinwood breakfront side cabinet with Wedgwood plaques attributed to Dyer and Watts

A Victorian satinwood breakfront side cabinet with Wedgwood plaques attributed to Dyer and Watts, the shaped top above a central door flanked by two glazed doors enclosing shelves, decorated with stencilled floral motifs, two pale green Wedgwood jasperware plaques, overlapping ebony discs to the corners and fine quality ormolu mounts, both plaques stamped on the reverse ‘Wedgwood’. English, circa 1860.

The stylised floral stencil decoration strongly suggests Dyer and Watts of Islington.  Dyer & Watts (1860-1900) advertised as ‘Manufacturers to the Trade of Ornamental Bedroom Furniture in Hard Woods, Plain Pine, Pine Marqueterie, & Japanned’.  In 1861 John Dyer patented a process of imitation marquetry by stencilling onto veneers.  The firm won a medal at the Dublin Exhibition 1865 and a silver medal at the 1867 Paris Exhibition where their stencilled pine bedroom suite was later purchased by Empress Eugenie.  The wardrobe of the suite is illustrated in Symonds & Whineray (1962), fig. 44 and the stencilled decoration was described in the Art Journal Supplement 1867 ‘as refreshing to the eye as if the woods had been of the rarest and most costly‘.  We are indebted to Christopher Payne, one of the world’s leading authorities in 19^th century furniture, for his research into this cabinet.  It is to be included in his forthcoming publication ‘British Furniture 1820-1920 The Luxury Market’, The Antique Collector’s Club, 2022.