Lot Essay
The cabinet, with two doors above a base section with three or four drawers first emerged in Holland around 1700 and superseded the large cabinet with open stands as the principal item of storage furniture. The present cabinet is an early example of the 'boogcabinet' - named after the serpentine arched cresting - and has still largely retained the architecural outline of earlier cabinets. The lambrequin carving of the cresting is also more reminiscent of the Dutch version of the Louis XIV style - generally associated with the Court architect and designer Daniël Marot (1661-1752) - than of the rococo. The base section is flanked by hinged scrolling angles, or so-called 'openslaande knieën, with a hidden drawer arrangement, and the drawers have shaped fronts, which is generally called 'orgelgebogen'. Interestingly, this type of undulation, which was fashionable in Holland between circa 1725-1745, relates to the 'arc-en-arbalette' shape of French commodes of the Régence period.
The celebrated dolls-house in the collection of the Haags Gemeentemuseum (The Hague Muncipal Museum) is fitted in a cabinet, which is in many aspects similar to the present example. The former was supplied to Sara Ploos van Amstel (1699-1751) by Jan Meyer (n.d.) in 1743 for which he received 230 Florins. (J.Pijzel-Dommisse, Het poppenhuis van het Haags Gemeentemuseum, The Hague, 1988, p.35)
See illustration
The celebrated dolls-house in the collection of the Haags Gemeentemuseum (The Hague Muncipal Museum) is fitted in a cabinet, which is in many aspects similar to the present example. The former was supplied to Sara Ploos van Amstel (1699-1751) by Jan Meyer (n.d.) in 1743 for which he received 230 Florins. (J.Pijzel-Dommisse, Het poppenhuis van het Haags Gemeentemuseum, The Hague, 1988, p.35)
See illustration