SINCE THE WORK of the Amsterdam ebony worker Herman Doomer (c.1595–1650) was first presented in this Magazine in 1996, little new research has been carried out on him or his colleagues. There have, however, been some further attributions of individual pieces of furniture to Doomer, and others have been recognised that, although perhaps not from his own workshop, were undoubtedly made in his vicinity. It is increasingly clear that Amsterdam played a major role in the early history of ébénisterie in northern Europe, and this is corroborated by a few documents. For example, it has until now been overlooked that when in 1612 the Dutch States-General purchased a wide range of precious goods to be presented to Ahmed I, the Sultan of Turkey, they not only ordered chairs made of ebony and other tropical woods from two ‘Spanish chair makers’ in Amsterdam, but also turned to an ebony worker there. His name was Simon Jacobs and he sold them an ebony comptoir, or cabinet, with gilt locks and ‘rings’, and an ebony jewel-box, lined with red velvet and fitted with a gilt lock and gilt handles. Together they cost the considerable sum of 264 guilders. In addition, for a compass made by Joost de Beer, another craftsman, Andries Jansen, produced an octagonal case of ebony for 54 guilders. This was more than a decade before the Amsterdam St Joseph guild recognised ebony workers as a professional group with its own duties and rights in 1626. Fashionable demand was obviously strong and practitioners of the new craft were firmly established prior to being accorded official status.

THE CELEBRATED COLLECTOR and writer William Beckford (Fig.13) authorised five auction sales of his possessions and works of art at his Fonthill estate in Wiltshire. He contracted the London auctioneer Harry Phillips to conduct four sales (two in 1801 and two in 1807), and James Christie for the famous sale of 1822, which was aborted after Beckford engaged in secret negotiations and sold the entire estate to the gunpowder manufacturer John Farquhar. The proposed Fonthill sale of 1822 and the subsequent sale of 1823 have received considerable attention over the years, greatly contributing to an understanding and appreciation of Beckford’s connoisseurship. The social stir these two events created and the impressive offerings in their sale catalogues have overshadowed the principal Fonthill sale of 1801 which contained some important – and now much sought after – furniture, paintings and other opulent furnishings. The sale also generated its own notoriety over the four days it was held from the 19th to 22nd August. With the public viewing beginning on 10th August, the roads to the estate were clogged with people and carriages and for a radius of fifteen miles it was practically impossible to find overnight accommodation. The Morning Chronicle reported that from ‘Salisbury, Andover, Bath, Weymouth, &c. all the subordinate towns, the villas, and even the hamlets in their respective vicinities, the roads swarmed all the morning with shoals of the young and the gay, slaving as they could to this splendid exhibition’.