A WILLIAM AND MARY OYSTER-VENEERED LIGNUM VITAE CABINET-ON-STAND

Details

A WILLIAM AND MARY OYSTER-VENEERED LIGNUM VITAE CABINET-ON-STAND
LATE 17TH CENTURY

The rectangular case veneered with interlocking circles on an oyster-veneered ground with a pair of cabinet doors enclosing an arrangement of fourteen drawers surrounding a pair of cabinet doors enclosing further drawers, the stand with a drawer over spiral-turned legs joined by intertwined stretchers and foliate silvered feet, distressed, losses to stretchers, interior re-fitted
57½in. (146cm.) high, 31½in. (80cm.) wide, 17¾in. (45cm.) deep

Lot Essay

This cabinet-on stand relates closely to a 'scriptor' in oyster-veneered 'Princes' wood (or kingwood) which appears in the 1683 inventory at Ham House, Surrey (see P. Thornton, 'Ham House', F.H.S.J., 1980, p.79, fig. 83). The two pieces share the same pattern of oyster-veneering and the stands are identical in form. Another similar is illustrated in F. Lenygon, The Decoration and Furniture of English Mansions During the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, 1919, p. 24. A table with geometric inlaid lignum vitae top is illustrated in R.W. Symonds, English Furniture from Charles II to George II, 1929, pp.84-85, figs.53-54.