Dowbiggin & Co., 23 Mount Street
Bonheur-du-jour 1871
Rosewood, ebony, mahogany, gilt bronze and porcelain | 162.0 x 113.5 x 56.0 cm (whole object) | RCIN 41237
Audience Room, Osborne House
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For the furnishing of their new seaside home, Osborne House on the Isle of Wight, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert chose the well-established firm of Thomas Dowbiggin of Mount Street, Mayfair, later Holland & Sons. Much of it, like this French-inspired cabinet, was set with German porcelain plaques, often copying celebrated paintings. In this case the plaques reproduce a series of miniatures of the royal children as infants.
Text adapted from Victoria & Albert: Art & Love, London, 2010Provenance
Made for Queen Victoria (£85, V&A, Archive of Art and Design, AAD/1983/13/104, Holland & Sons archive).
Dowbiggin & Son were manufacturers of high quality fashionable furniture including Queen Victoria's Coronation Chair of State; they worked on the furnishing for Osborne House beginning in 1845 until 1850 when, on Thomas Dowbiggin's retirement his firm was merged with Holland & Sons who retained his premises at Mount Street. -
Creator(s)
(furniture maker)(artist)Acquirer(s)
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Medium and techniques
Rosewood, ebony, mahogany, gilt bronze and porcelain
Measurements
162.0 x 113.5 x 56.0 cm (whole object)
