“A labelled Grendey Chest” – Featured by the Antiques Trade Gazette, May the 29th 2021.
Dealer discovers highly rare labelled chest by eminent maker Giles Grendey
This George II caddy-topped mahogany chest bears not one, but two original trade labels for the London cabinet maker Giles Grendey (c.1693-1780).
Grendey was one of only a few English cabinetmakers at the time to regularly affix trade labels to his furniture. Not many survive with an even smaller number found on caddy-topped chests like this one.
Recently acquired by English furniture dealers Alexander George Antiques, the c.1739-40 chest features a caddy-moulded top above a brushing slide and four long graduating drawers, each cock-beaded bearing their original open fret handles and skeleton escutcheons. The chest is raised on original bracket feet with lignum vitae roller casters and is priced in the range of £30,000.
“This is the most recent discovery labelled by the eminent maker, Giles Grendey,” said the gallery’s Mark Pargeter. “There are very few labelled examples known. To put it into context, I believe this is the third caddy-topped chest in some 300 years to be discovered bearing his original trade label.”
A similar piece is illustrated in Christopher Gilbert’s Pictorial Dictionary of Marked London Furniture 1700-1840 (1996).
