Fine art valuers, advisors & brokers since 1972
Channel Islands Furniture & Clocks
What started out as a seemingly straightforward valuation of furniture turned
into a voyage of discovery. All eight pieces plus one longcase appeared quintessentially
to be British but all had idiosyncrasies that set them apart from furniture
of Scottish, English, West Indian or Isle of Man origin - where had they been
made?
It turned out the furniture had been inherited from an estate in Jersey but
there were no records of furniture manufacture in the Channel Islands so we
decided to investigate by going to the islands and doing some research, the
results were intriguing.
It
took three years on and off to accumulate the names and addresses of 100 cabinet
makers operating in the islands between 1680 and 1830, remarkable since the
local historians had said there never was a cabinet making tradition and they
had no records. The most well documented maker was Nicholas Lihou from Guernsey
and his work turns up as far afield as Australia: fortunately he signed all
the pieces that we are aware of.
Charles Guillaume who was born in Jersey in 1671 and died in Saybrook, Connecticut
in 1727 is a mystery. There is a fine painted chest on stand in Winterthur
Museum in Delaware attributed to him as being made in Saybrook, the problem
is the chest, stylistically, appears to pre-date his arrival in America which
leaves us wondering if it was in fact made in Jersey and then taken to Connecticut
- this research is ongoing. There is clearly a connection between the painted
chests of Jersey and Guernsey and those of Coastal Connecticut.
There is currently an exhibition entitled Thistles and Crowns at the Florence
Griswold museum in Old Lyme, Connecticut; they have a display of painted furniture
much of which originated In Connecticut, some perhaps by Guillaume: see www.florencegriswoldmuseum.org.
We have collected sufficient material for a book but as yet we have not found
a publisher. However, we have extracted the clockmakers section of just under
seventy names and published an un-illustrated book on the clockmakers in the
islands and this can be bought online:
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