A Charles II scagliola and ebony cabinet, circa 1670, attributed to Baldassare Artima and possibly Diacinto Cawcy

Most likely commissioned by Elizabeth Countess of Lauerdale and Dysart (1626–1698) for Ham House, Richmond;

James Chinnery-Haldane (1840–1906);

Thence by descent;

Private collection. 

C. Rowell, 'Scagliola by 'Baldassare Artima Romanus' at Ham House and elsewhere', in C. Rowell (ed.), Ham House: 400 Years of Collecting and Patronage, New Haven and London, 2013, p.210, figs.205 and 206. 

The rich decoration covering this showpiece cabinet is a rare large-scale example of the seventeenth-century art of 'scagliola', practised not in its native Italy but unusually by a craftsman in England. This technique's evocatively gem-like palette is so atypical for grand furniture in an English context that it allows us to narrow it down to a specificmaker, Baldassare Artima, and even conclude that it was very possibly made as part of a documented suite for the famed aristocratic palace Ham House.

BALDASSARE ARTIMA (FL. C.1670-1686)

It is immediately apparent on looking at this cabinet that the ornament is closely akin to that on the chimneypiece at Ham House (NT 1139084). Not only is the rare scagliola technique similarly applied, but the decorative motifs clearly echo one another: bursting cornucopiae feature on the side panels of the present cabinet and the hearth at Ham House, while Solomonic columns encircled by twisting vines are also on the uprights of both. Extant bills document the mantlepiece on several occasions, including an initial payment of £5 and a later payment of £13, in June and August of 1673 respectively, and also a later sum of £2 10s for repair in July 1675.¹ Notably, Baldassare Artima's name is followed by "Romane" or "Romanus" in all of these bills, demonstrating that either he or his patron (or both) saw his Italian roots as artistically desirable and worth emphasising. While there are no extant bills for the pair of torchères with scagliola tops elsewhere at the house (NT 1140072.1 and NT 1140072.2), their stylistic similarity and their early presence on the Ham House inventory of 1679 allows us to also attribute these to Artima with relative confidence. Artima often worked with another craftsman known as Diacinto Cawcy (possibly an Anglicisation of 'Corsi') until the two parted ways in 1672, and in his close analysis of the present cabinet, Christopher Rowell argues that the present cabinet was likely from this period of collaboration.²

While the documented furniture still at Ham House is themost important example of Artima's work, thereare a few others that merit mention. Another clearly similar scagliola table in the V&A (W.12:1, 2-1968) can also be confidently attributed to Artima, and was recorded in Warwick Castle, Warwickshire from the 19th century. A suite of a looking glass, table and two torchères are at Drayton House, Northamptonshire.³ Artima's works are rarely seen at auction, but another cabinet-on-stand was offered at Sotheby's London, 7th December 2010, lot 7 and a table was offered earlier this year in Noble & Private Collections, 22 May 2025, lot 53.

PROVENANCE IN HAM HOUSE AND GLENEAGLES

The clear similarities with the Ham House group and the paucity of similar examples at other houses suggest that there is a strong chance of this cabinet having been commissioned as part of the Ham House furnishings. The châtelaine of Ham House during the 1670s was Elizabeth Countess of Lauerdale and Dysart (1626-1698), then at the height of her power and wealth. A firm supporter of the Stuarts, she worked covertly with the Royalist group known as the Sealed Knot during the Civil War, covert anti-governmental work that was partly enabled by her close personal relationship with their political nemesis Oliver Cromwell. After the Restoration, her loyalty was politically and financially rewarded by the new regime, and her standing was further strengthened by her marriage to John Maitland, Earl of Lauderdale in 1672. Just after this marriage, the Earl and Countess of Lauderdale undertook significant work on Ham House to make it into a country house of the highest order, including the commissioning of the scagliola furniture from Artima.

The possibility of the present cabinet having been part of this Artima suite for Ham House is further strengthened by the fact the Earls of Lauderdale were later linked by marriage with the Haldane family, who were its nineteenth-century owners. It is plausible, therefore, that this cabinet moved from a Lauderdale property to a Haldane property at some point following the marriages of the 6th Earl of Lauderdale's son and granddaughter to members of the Haldane clan in the 1760s. The earliest record of this cabinet's whereabouts is in the possession of James Chinnery-Haldane (1840-1906), to whom the estates of the Haldane clan were transferred in 1918 by the 4th Earl of Camperdown. It is the name of Chinnery-Haldane, who served as Bishop of Argyll from 1883 to his death, that is recorded on the label attached to the cabinet keys, which reads:

"STONE cabinet

To Bishop of Argyll and the Isles,

Ballachulish

Scotland

STONE CABINET"

It appears that cabinet spent a period at the highland town of Ballachulish, likely coinciding with his time serving as curate and then incumbent between 1876 and 1885. An additional twentieth-century label, also under the name of Chinnery Haldane, has the location of Dunblane, suggesting that it was later moved to a different family property within Glen Eagles.

THE ART OF SCAGLIOLA AND THE ORNAMENT OF THE PRESENT CABINET

Scagliola was an art form developed in response to the hugely popular Italian art form of the post-Renaissance period that used

carefully cut inlays of vibrant marbles and hardstones, a technique usually referred to in English by its Italian name pietre dure. Scagliola, amethod of combining gypsum, glue and coloured pigments to create similar decoration on tabletops and panels, initially developed as a cost-effective alternative to pietre dure inlay, particularly in regions of Italy like Emilia-Romagna, where natural supplies of marble and hardstones were less plentiful but gypsum was in good supply. Soon, though, it evolved a distinctive aesthetic style of itsown, taking advantage of the greater fluidity and flexibility of the medium in comparison to actual hardstones.

The ornament on this cabinet, like most historical decorative art, often carries associationsor symbolic resonance. Generally, most natural phenomena had been linked in someway to ideas, virtues, deities or stories, either in a Christian context or through the Greek and Roman mythology with which the aristocracy and educated bourgeoisie of the seventeenth century would have been well acquainted. The mistletoe that is pictured on some of the drawers, for instance, is generally seen as a symbol of vitality, but also has talismanic qualities of protection that lead it to be associated with the 'golden bough' held by Aeneas as he descends to the underworld in Book VI of The Aeneid. Similarly, the cornucopia has a long history as a symbol for fruitful plenty (it is literally a corne d'abondance in French) but was also recognised as the emblem of specific deities like Ceres, the Ancient Roman goddess of the harvest. A notable symbol is the use of the twisted columns up the vertical panels of the cabinet: the supportive architectural function of columns has long led them to be used symbolically in other arts to suggest stability and grandeur, while the twisted 'Solomonic column' became popular in the Baroque period and was thought to be more Christian than the orders of architecture from antiquity. Christopher Rowell also ventures further symbolic possibilities in his close analysis of this cabinet, including a more specifically Stuart interpretation of these columns by reference to Poyntz's 1672 tapestries depicting Charles I and Henrietta Maria alongside a twisted column (V&A T.68-2002).⁴

¹ For all bills reproduced in full, see C.Rowell, 'Scagliola by 'Baldassare Artima Romanus at Ham House and Elsewhere', in C. Rowell (ed), Ham House: 400 Years of Collecting and Patronage, New Haven and London, 2013, p.206. This in-depth article remains the definitive study of Artima's work and the Ham House commission.

² ibid. p.219

³ Reproduced in ibid., p.67.

⁴ ibid. pp.219-220.