As we saw in Part I of this article, Jean Pelletier's younger son Thomas took over the management of the family business in 1702. In November 1704, a month before his father's death, Thomas was appointed Cabinetmaker in Ordinary to Queen Anne (see the Appendix below, Document III).1 Curiously, however, there are no direct payments to him in the Lord Chamberlain's accounts and, as a result, his work for the queen has not hitherto been recognised. A careful reading of the Lord Chamberlain's accounts for that reign shows that in 1703 the cabinetmaker Gerrit Jensen, who had formerly specialised in veneered furniture, was suddenly supplying giltwood items. It seems probable that Jensen subcontracted this giltwood furniture to carvers and gilders outside his own workshop and, as the dates of the bills for giltwood from Jensen are earlier than Thomas Pelletier's royal appointment, it is plausible that Jensen may have given the work to Thomas and Rene Pelletier and others, probably including Robert Derignee. Indeed Jensen's 'Boulle' mirrors at Boughton (Fig. 1) have giltwood crestings and inner fillets which may also have been supplied by an outworker.2 At Windsor Castle, Buckingham Palace and Warwick Castle there are several pieces of giltwood furniture originally made for Queen Anne which can plausibly be attributed to the Pelletier brothers on the strength of their similarity to earlier pieces ascribed to the family in Part I.

Just over a century ago, in 1897, Michelangelo Guggenheim published an anthology of photographs of more than a hundred Italian renaissance frames, Le Cornici italiane dalla meta del secolo XV allo scorcio del XVI, the first major contribution to scholarship in this branch of art history. Guggenheim was one of the leading art dealers in Venice, engaged in selling 'jugs and rugs and candlesticks' as well as paintings and sculptures and, perhaps partly because he supplied museums, he developed a scholarly interest in his wares which eventually overtook his commercial interests. He bequeathed to his native city a great collection of historic textiles and another of old ornamental wood carvings.'

Five days after the sale of J.M.W. Turner's Llandeilo Bridge and Dynevor Castle (Fig.37) in 1938, A.M. Hind, the keeper of prints and drawings at the British Museum, wrote to the director of the National Museum of Wales, Sir Cyril Fox.' Hind identified the work as the 'Llandilo Bridge and Dinevor Castle' Turner had exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1796 (no.656), and noted that although the British Museum 'believed it to be a genuine early Turner', it had bid only up to the 'moderate price' of £30 'as we have so much Turner'. Agnew's had reservations concerning its authenticity, but C.F. Bell and A.J. Finberg accepted it and Hind advised Fox to purchase it from the successful bidder, the Palser Gallery of St James's, who had bought it for £40. David Baxandall, then Assistant Keeper of Art at Cardiff, enthusiastically endorsed Hind's suggestion, and the water-colour was purchased for £55. The following year, Baxandall contrasted it with two other Welsh water-colours by Turner in the museum's collection, Marford Mill, exhibited at the R.A. in 1795 (no.581) and Ewenny Priory, exhibited in 1797 (no.427): 'It shows the transition from objectivity to subjectivity actually in progress. The regard for the reality of the objects depicted is still present. But the picture as a whole has another interest, for this carefully delineated bridge is set in an effect of light that made its own poetic appeal to the artist'.2 Prob- ably on account of the intrusive discolouration of the sky (see Fig.36), critical opinion of the water-colour remained lukewarm until its inclusion in the exhibition Turner in Wales in 1984. In the accompanying catalogue, Andrew Wilton observes: 'In its sumptuous evocation of evening light this watercolour is, with the Ewenny, the climax of his work based on the 1795 tour and its depiction of the castle (shown much closer than in reality) against a brilliant low sun anticipates his later preoccupation with such subjects at Cilgerran and Norham'.:"

The Victoria and Albert Museum has recently acquired a unique group of prototypes for a coffee set, designed and painted by Ben Nicholson (Fig.40).' The set was produced as part of an adventurous project devised by Thomas Acland Fennemore, sales manager of the china manufacturers E. Brain & Co. Ltd., who traded under the name of Foley China.2 It involved the commissioning of a large number of designs for tableware from a range of contemporary artists, each of whom was paid £10 per design plus royalties. The results of the project were displayed alongside many of the original design drawings in the exhibition 'Modern Art for the Table' which opened at Harrods on 22nd October 1934 and was subsequently shown at other venues.