3-008-637 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The International Exhibition: cabinet and candelabra by Wright and Mansfield, 1862. '...a splendid cabinet in the style of the English furniture of the eighteenth century...[which] consists of carved wood gilded, with pleaques of Wedgwood ware introduced in the panels and frieze...The frieze is enriched by a simple upright treatment well calculated to convey the idea of strength, and in the centre by a very beautiful medallic tablet by Wedgwood...The central compartment of the cabinet is open, and is furnished with two shelves covered in maroon velvet traversed by gold lines, while each of the side panels is solid matted gold, broken by light ornaments and enriched by a central elliptical slab of Wedgwood ware of exceeding beauty...Although the cabinet is entirely of gold, yet only a few enrichments are burnished- such as the vertical ornament of the frieze and a Greek ware ornament which is wrought upon the lower structural beam. Thus the effect is subdued, while great richness prevails. The top of the cabinet is of the purest statuary marble. The candelabra are formed to harmonise with the cabinet, hence they are in carved wood, gilded throughout, and furnished with Wedgwood medallions'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.