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Jean Mancel (Mansel) (Franco-Dutch, act.1685-1712): A rare carved ivory oval profile portrait relief of Arent Furly (Anglo-Dutch, 1685-1712) image 1
Jean Mancel (Mansel) (Franco-Dutch, act.1685-1712): A rare carved ivory oval profile portrait relief of Arent Furly (Anglo-Dutch, 1685-1712) image 2
Jean Mancel (Mansel) (Franco-Dutch, act.1685-1712): A rare carved ivory oval profile portrait relief of Arent Furly (Anglo-Dutch, 1685-1712) image 3
Lot 116Ф,Y

Jean Mancel (Mansel) (Franco-Dutch, act.1685-1712): A rare carved ivory oval profile portrait relief of Arent Furly (Anglo-Dutch, 1685-1712)

Amended
Vernacular Furniture, Naïve Art, and Textiles
23 September – 7 October 2025, 12:00 BST
Online, London, Knightsbridge

Sold for £1,536 inc. premium

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Jean Mancel (Mansel) (Franco-Dutch, act.1685-1712): A rare carved ivory oval profile portrait relief of Arent Furly (Anglo-Dutch, 1685-1712)

The youthful sitter carved in shallow relief as a shoulder length bust profile portrait looking to dexter, wearing a long curling wig and with drapery arranged over his armoured breast plate, signed with the monogram I.M.F for Jean Mancel, the inner oval with engraved inscription, A:FVRLY.NATVS.1685.AE TATIS.SVAE.XXIII within a moulded border, mounted within an original pearwood frame with ink label to reverse ARENT FURLY -SECRETARY TO THE EARL OF PETERBOROUGH IN SPAIN. DIED 1705 -SON OF BENJAMIN FURLY (1636-1714) A NOTED LITERARY QUAKER. FRIEND OF FOX, PENN AND LOCKE AND POSSESSOR OF VALUABLE LIBRARY, the oval 10.5cm high, 8.5cm wide, not including frame, the oval 10.5cm high, 8.5cm wide, not including frame

Footnotes

Please note this piece comes with an ivory exemption certificate, this will be provided to the new owner.
Jean Mancel (or Mansel) was a prominent ivory carver, probably originally from Dieppe, who is believed to have worked principally for royal patrons across Europe. Mancel's style is thought to have exerted a discernible influence on his contemporary ivory sculptor David le Marchand (1674–1726), prior to his later development of a distinctive high relief portrait style which would bring him wider renown amongst collectors and connoisseurs.

Works signed by Mancel are of considerable rarity. The offered lot is monogrammed I.M.F, which in Latin stands for Ioannes Mancel Fecit, indicating that Jean Mancel created this work. A small number of unsigned ivories, attributed to him on stylistic grounds, are known, amongst them, a portrait of Princess Louise Stuart (1692–1712), daughter of James II, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, another of William III in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, and an example in Berlin. However, no signed examples are held in public collections, and aside from the attributed portrait in the Victoria and Albert Museum, no other ivories by Mancel appear to be represented in British institutions. A bronze cast, thought to derive from a signed ivory and formerly with Munthandel Verschoor, the Dutch coin and medal dealer, bears striking stylistic similarities to the present work, perhaps further underlining both the rarity and significance of pieces attributable to this elusive master.

Arent Furly served as secretary to General James Stanhope, later 1st Earl Stanhope (1673–1721), both in Spain during the War of the Spanish Succession and at Chevening, the Stanhope family seat in Kent. Chevening is now the designated country residence of the Foreign Secretary, held in trust by the Stanhope Trust. In his role as Stanhope's secretary, Furly occupied a position of considerable responsibility, receiving several substantial payments from the Exchequer for wartime disbursements. Some sources suggest he also held military rank, which may explain his appearance in armour in the present portrait.

Furly's surviving correspondence, preserved in the Kent County Archive, attests to a professional relationship with Stanhope that endured from 1703 until Furly's untimely death in 1712. A small collection of his letters is also held by the Wellcome Institute.

Following his death, the philosopher Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury (British, 1671–1713), wrote a letter of condolence to Furly's father, Benjamin Furly, from Naples on 22 March 1712: "My pupil and élève, in whose education and advancement I took so great a part, that I may justly sympathise even in a fatherly affliction for his loss, and next to a real parent or brother, he could have none a truer mourner, or with more reason than myself."

Furly was clearly held in high regard by leading figures of the time, enjoying close associations with intellectual and political luminaries such as Shaftesbury, John Locke, and Stanhope. Had he lived, his prospects would have been considerable—particularly given Stanhope's later rise to First Lord of the Treasury, a position which some historians regard as equivalent to that of Britain's first Prime Minister.

Benjamin Furly (Anglo-Dutch, 1636–1714), the father of Arent Furly, was a wealthy merchant engaged in trade with the Low Countries. A Quaker and philosophical author, he was closely associated with George Fox, William Penn and John Locke. His extensive library was dispersed by auction over four days in Amsterdam following his death. Through his father, Arent became a close friend of Locke, the 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury, and other leading intellectuals of the period.

The offered portrait is rare given its artistic and historical importance, depicting the likeness of a young man involved in key military, political, and intellectual events during the early 18th century, a period when England played a growing role in European affairs.

Saleroom notices

Please note this piece comes with an ivory exemption certificate, this will be provided to the new owner.

Additional information

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