LEIGHTON’S CABINET, AROUND THE WORLD IN 115 YEARS
This cabinet has recently returned on loan to the museum to stand in the precise spot it occupied up until 1896. We are now seeking your help to raise £7,000 to secure it for the permanent collections at Leighton House.

Leighton’s furniture together with the rest of the contents of the house was sold at Christie’s in the summer of 1896 following his death. This beautiful cabinet sold for £86 and then vanished before re-appearing just over 100 years later when it came up at auction in Melbourne, Australia in 1997.

The new owner found part of the original Leighton sale catalogue inside one of the drawers. She wrote to the museum enclosing a photograph and it was immediately recognisable as the cabinet that appears in the photographs of Leighton’s studio standing in this position.

The piece is made up of elements of a South German chest of the late sixteenth century and possibly elements of an English chest of drawers of a century later. These were put together and a stand made for it probably in the 1860s or 1870s.  We do not yet know when and where Leighton acquired it.

This is the most important piece of Leighton’s original furniture to have returned to the house. We urgently need your help to keep it here permanently for the enjoyment of future generations of visitors.