MID-18TH CENTURY

Details

A CHINESE-EXPORT PADOUK BUREAU-CABINET
MID-18TH CENTURY
The rectangular moulded cornice above a pair of doors with mirror-paintings of birds in flowering branches, enclosing an adjustable shelf above two short drawers, above a bureau-section enclosing a fitted interior of pigeon-holes and drawers, above two short and three long drawers, on ogee bracket feet, the drawers hardwood-lined and numbered in black crayon, the sides of both upper and lower sections with original paktong carrying-handles, one painted mirror plate cracked
74 in. (188 cm.) high; 44¼ in. (112.5 cm.) wide; 22½ in. (57 cm.) deep

Special notice

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 15% on the buyer's premium

Lot Essay

The bureau-cabinet is made of solid padouk and is designed in the manner of English mid-18th century bureau-cabinets following a pattern popularised by Thomas Chippendale in his Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director, 1754, plate 77. Another solid padouk bureau-cabinet, also with paktong handles, but with un-decorated mirrors in the upper section, from the collection of Richard Milhender is illustrated in C. Crossman, The Decorative Arts of the China Trade, Woodbridge, 1991, p. 227, plate 79. Another, with related painted mirror panels was sold by the late Mrs Marguerite Silvia Benn Eyre, Christie's, London, 19 February 1970, lot 53.

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