Ince & Mayhew furniture for sale

1stDibs is an online gallery where professional dealers can advertise their items for sale in a great many different categories.  It is New York based though the dealers are from all over the world. I initially searched the site on Mayhew and enjoyed the mixture of antique furniture and Star Wars memorabilia which resulted.  (Peter Mayhew played Chewbacca in Star Wars for the uninitiated.)  When I then filtered by Ince & Mayhew 42 items came up for sale; some are attributed to the firm, some ascribed, some are in the manner of and some are by somebody else but Ince and Mayhew are mentioned in the description.  I found seven items that were definitely made by them.

Prices range from £14,750 for a Sheraton style dressing table, one of the wonderful metamorphic tables that unfolds, but which has no provenance, to £485,000 for a serpentine commode, which is exquisitely executed.  I am particularly taken with the brushing slide with ivy decoration that lies above the two doors on the front.  One of the commodes at Croome Court has a similar slide which would have been used as a flat surface for brushing clothes.

There is also a dumb waiter for sale at £17,000, probably from Clytha Castle in Monmouthshire.  The purchaser, William Jones, kept a detailed ledger which records payments of £1,000 to Mayhew & Ince between 1791-1792.   Other items that came from Clytha Castle are the pair of card tables that were sold in 2013 at Sotheby’s New York for £77,000.  See 18th May 2016 blog entry.

Finally there is an extremely fine copy of the Universal System of Household Furniture for sale at £25,000.   This copy has notes and drawings made by the cabinet maker who originally bought it.