David Garrick, actor and manager of the Drury Lane Theatre, employed Thomas Chippendale to supply the furniture for his country villa retreat on the banks of the river Thames at Hampton. In a similar situation to his commission at Harewood, Chippendale was to work with Robert Adam who was also employed to undertake certain architectural changes to Garrick's house.
This small piece of furniture was part of a much larger set all painted white and decorated with chinoiserie motifs for Garrick's best bedroom. Contrary to belief painted furniture was not particulary cheap. David Garrick's wife, for example, objected that 'all those things which were Painted Green and white . . . are almost doubly charged for Painting only to what they have cost me originally'. Although painted furniture was considered most suitable for bedrooms it was on a par with marquetry work, which was generally made for drawings rooms, libraries, dining rooms etc., as a fashionable finish for furniture.
This piece is a particularly rare example of Chippendale's work as he did not usually supply bookcases to the bedrooms he furnished. As an enthusiastic book collector, however, Garrick probably imposed upon Chippendale to make an exception and consequently this bookcase is quite an exception in any of his surviving bedroom suites. Garrick's Adelphi house and Hampton villa both had large libraries as well as a number of bookcases and book shelves in the bedrooms, obviously a reflection of Garrick's fondness for reading.
Dwarf Bookcase
c.1777
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