Kensington Church Street remains one of the most culturally important streets in London. Situated in between Notting Hill Gate and Kensington, this London Street comprises more art and antiques shops than any other destination in the UK. The Street remains unparalleled for the range and quality of pieces available from fine Chinese porcelain to important English furniture, from claret jugs to contemporary art and long case clocks to 20th century artists’ jewellery.

Founded in 1964, Butchoff Antiques at number 154 Kensington Church Street, deal in 18th and 19th Century English and Continental Furniture, Mirrors and objects and specialise in pieces from the Great 19th Century Exhibitions of Art & Industry, and some of the great Cabinet Makers of the period, including Holland & Sons, Wright & Mansfield, Jackson & Graham and Gillow of London & Lancaster.

Butchoff's most recent in house exhibition was From Mace to Maples – The Art of the Cabinet at Butchoff Antiques took place in June and was a remarkable exhibition devoted to one of history’s most highly prized pieces of furniture - the cabinet. The exhibition charted over 250 years of the finest cabinet making throughout Europe by widely recognised makers from Jean Macé to John Maples.

One of the star pieces of the show was undoubtedly the rediscovered masterpiece, The Hausburg Cabinet 1840-57, a significant piece of 19th Century cabinet making, by little known cabinetmaker Friedrich Ludwig Hausburg (1817-1886). The cabinet standing at just 45cm high and 38cm wide is a marvel of craftsmanship representing a plethora of royal palaces and churches. Constructed in ebony the cabinet minutely depicts the elaborate scens of the Cathedral of Rheims, Westminster Abbey, King’s College Chapel, Cambridge, Kew Palace, the Old House of Lords, Brighton Pavilion, the castles of Windsor, Dover, and Caernarvon and Kenilworth, St Pauls Cathedral, St.James Palace with and The Tower of London to name but a few.

Another spectacular piece on show at Butchoff is a magnificent Indian table cabinet, made circa 1670 in Coromandel, S. East India (Gujarat or Sindh) with extensive ivory inlay, and still with its original metalwork lock, key and carrying handles will be offered for sale. The foliate ivory inlaid double doors open to reveal lavishly inlaid reverses, and an arrangement of thirteen drawers symmetrically arranged. The inlaid design on the table cabinet was made in Western India and reflects the Mughal court style, which following its Islamic traditions, permitted only abstract and floral decoration. This is a typical example of Mughal art dating as early as the second quarter of the seventeenth century and was highly sought after by European traders of the period.

The coming Autumn Season of antiques fairs sees founder LAPADA member and BADA BADA member Ian Butchoff departing for Berkeley Square from 22-26 September for the LAPADA London Art and Antiques Fair followed by a journey north to exhibit at the Harrogate Antique Fair from 1-5 October, 2010.


Among the exhibits at Harrogate will be A Rare Pair of French Display Cabinets in the Chinoiserie Manner:

The wood frame ebonised, and paint decorated with Chinese motifs and trelliswork in polychrome and gilt; rising from cabriole legs with lions paw feet, having winged grotesque lion masks at the knees, the conjoining stretcher in a chinoiserie gilt highlighted lattice framework; the glazed doors with fitted interiors, and the angles issue pendant dragons; the roofs of stepped pagoda form, with imbricated ‘tiling’, decorated with addorsed finely carved gilt figures of pigtailed seated Chinese men in native costume. Capped by finialled towers with ‘shou’ life symbols inset into circular polychromed glass panels, and outswept tiling.Circa 1870

Another example of fine cabinet making will be this magnificent Bonheur du Jour of exhibition quality, in the Louis XVth Manner, and attributed to Holland & Sons Lovingly constructed in Bois Citronnier, and Purpleheart woods, with extensive usage of finely cast, planished and mercury gilded mounts, and, ‘Sevres’ porcelain plaques.

Throughout the construction, the Bois Citronnier ground is cross banded with Purpleheart. Rising from sabot shod cabriole legs, with pierced foliate mounts at the knees; the apron, of serpentine form houses three drawers,each faced with foliate form gilt bronze frames housing Sèvres plaques, a ‘fete galante’ to the centre, and the flanking drawers with ladies dressed in the style of the late ancien regime; all drawers accessed by concealed spring operated buttons: the writing surface edged with a gilt bronze guard cast with foliates and gadroons, having espagnolettes to the angles, and the superstructure having a central bank of four concave drawers, with mahogany linings, with a pierced and scrolled gallery over, which, when depressed, allows the drawers to be opened; the flanking cupboards, dressed with stiff leaf gilt bronze running bands, having elliptical gilt bronze plaques housing further Sèvres plaques of courting couples over drawers, which are accessed by use of a special tool: the tops of the cupbard are hinged, and are opened by means of concealed spring loaded clips, to reveal velvet lined compartments. The four canted angles of the superstructure, dressed with gilt bronze herms, house ‘pull-out’ secret document containers. A pierced and shaped gilt bronze gallery surmounts both cupboards.
Circa 1860


Holland & Sons

Founded in 1803 by Stephen Taprell and William Holland, a relation of the architect Henry Holland, the firm of Holland & Sons soon became one of the largest and most successful furniture making companies in the 19th Century. The firm worked extensively for the Royal Family, being granted the Royal Warrant early in the reign of Queen Victoria, hence taking a leading part in the decoration and furnishing of Osborne House, Sandringham, Balmoral, Windsor Castle and the apartments of the Prince and Princess of Wales at Marlborough House. Holland and Sons also worked extensively for the British Government, for whom they executed over three hundred separate commissions, including the Palace of Westminster, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and oversaw the State funeral of the Duke of Wellington. Among their private commissions the firm produced a celebrated suite of bedroom furniture for the late Sir Harold Wernher at Luton Hoo.

Always at the forefront of fashion, Holland & Sons employed some of England’s leading designers and participated in all of the International Exhibitions of 1851, 1855, 1862, 1867, 1872 and 1878.

See Berkeley Square Beckons for LAPADA London for details of a fine centre table made for Queen Victoria's summer residence at Windsor which Butchoff Antiques will show at the fair.

For more information on both events see:
The Harrogate Antique Fair and LAPADA London Fine Art and Antiques Fair via Trade Index