Lot Essay
This magnificent cabinet-on-stand is one of a well-known pair whose history can be traced to the earlier part of this century. The companion cabinet is in the collection of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri.
There are many unusual features about these cabinets which make them unique in English furniture design. The existence of a pair of cabinets is rare, although Giles Grendey apparently supplied pairs of bureau-cabinets in his large commission to the Duke of Infantado in Spain (see a late nineteenth century photograph of the saloon reproduced in C.De Areaga, La Casa del Infantago, Cabeza de los Mendoza, vol.II, 1944). The use of a blue (teal) ground is another rare feature which sets these cabinets apart. Another example in blue was advertised by Graham Antiques of Piccadilly in The Connoisseur, August 1929, pl.LVIII. Finally, while imported Oriental cabinets were often placed upon similar gilt-gesso stands in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, this English 'japanned' pair with arched pediments and secretaire drawers is an apparently unique form not found elsewhere in English furniture design.
The cabinet's triumphal-arched cornice centered by a vase-capped pedestal corresponds to bureau-cabinet patterns drawn by the cabinet-makers sent to London in 1717 by Peter the Great of Russia (see, N.I.Guseva, 'Fedor Martynov, Russian Master Cabinet Maker', Furniture History, 1994, p.95, fig.2).
The beautifully rendered decoration depicting Chinese figures amidst pavilions, with fantastical beasts, birds, and flowering shrubs is inspired by contemporary Chinese screens and chests as well as vignettes in the Oriental or Chinoiserie style promoted by Messrs. Stalker and Parker in A Treatise of Japanning and Varnishing, 1688. The Chinese figure riding a camel which appears on one of the inside door panels can be found in a Kangxi lacquer screen illustrated in M.Jourdain, Chinese Export Art, 1950, fig.13. The overall style of the decoration including the fan-bearing figures, and the distinctive gilt-banded cornice with stylized decoration appears on a bureau-cabinet formerly in the collection of the Duke of Windsor which was sold in these Rooms, 12 October 1996, lot 277. This cabinet was attributed to London cabinetmaker John Belchier (d.1753) who may be responsible for this example. This attribution was based on similar known examples supplied by this maker, notably one commissioned for Erddig in Wales (see M.Drury, 'Early Eighteenth-Century Furniture at Erddig', Apollo, July 1978, pp.52-53, pl.11).
There are many unusual features about these cabinets which make them unique in English furniture design. The existence of a pair of cabinets is rare, although Giles Grendey apparently supplied pairs of bureau-cabinets in his large commission to the Duke of Infantado in Spain (see a late nineteenth century photograph of the saloon reproduced in C.De Areaga, La Casa del Infantago, Cabeza de los Mendoza, vol.II, 1944). The use of a blue (teal) ground is another rare feature which sets these cabinets apart. Another example in blue was advertised by Graham Antiques of Piccadilly in The Connoisseur, August 1929, pl.LVIII. Finally, while imported Oriental cabinets were often placed upon similar gilt-gesso stands in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, this English 'japanned' pair with arched pediments and secretaire drawers is an apparently unique form not found elsewhere in English furniture design.
The cabinet's triumphal-arched cornice centered by a vase-capped pedestal corresponds to bureau-cabinet patterns drawn by the cabinet-makers sent to London in 1717 by Peter the Great of Russia (see, N.I.Guseva, 'Fedor Martynov, Russian Master Cabinet Maker', Furniture History, 1994, p.95, fig.2).
The beautifully rendered decoration depicting Chinese figures amidst pavilions, with fantastical beasts, birds, and flowering shrubs is inspired by contemporary Chinese screens and chests as well as vignettes in the Oriental or Chinoiserie style promoted by Messrs. Stalker and Parker in A Treatise of Japanning and Varnishing, 1688. The Chinese figure riding a camel which appears on one of the inside door panels can be found in a Kangxi lacquer screen illustrated in M.Jourdain, Chinese Export Art, 1950, fig.13. The overall style of the decoration including the fan-bearing figures, and the distinctive gilt-banded cornice with stylized decoration appears on a bureau-cabinet formerly in the collection of the Duke of Windsor which was sold in these Rooms, 12 October 1996, lot 277. This cabinet was attributed to London cabinetmaker John Belchier (d.1753) who may be responsible for this example. This attribution was based on similar known examples supplied by this maker, notably one commissioned for Erddig in Wales (see M.Drury, 'Early Eighteenth-Century Furniture at Erddig', Apollo, July 1978, pp.52-53, pl.11).