Lot Essay
Antwerp cabinets first appear around 1600. Usually designed by merchants who sold them to their clients, these cabinets were enormously popular in 17th Century Europe and were even exported as far as South America.
Such cabinets could be ordered through a network of agents living throughout Europe, including Paris, Vienna and Munich, representing merchants such as Forchonott, Masson and Peter van Haecht, who subsequently commissioned the cabinets from ébénistes such as Michel Verbirt, Dirk Topts or Nicolas Verbert. The giltmetal, silver and copper was similarly supplied metalsmith like Moemans and Somers.
Further related examples include a cabinet, retaining its original balustrade from Glemham Hall illustrated in C. Hussey, Glemham Hall, Country Life, 1 January 1910, which another cabinet in the collection of the Duke of Richmond and Gordon at Goodwood House, Sussex was reputedly given by Charles II.
A related cabinet on giltwood stand was sold anonymously at Sotheby's New York, 16 May 1987, lot 134, while a similar cabinet with later stand and smaller proportions from the château de Beloeil was sold by the Prince de Ligne, Sotheby's London, 9 December 1994, lot 90.
Holyrood House was placed at the disposal of Louis XVIII from 1796 to 1814 and Charles X from 1830 to 1832 by George Prince of Wales later George IV and William IV respectively.
Such cabinets could be ordered through a network of agents living throughout Europe, including Paris, Vienna and Munich, representing merchants such as Forchonott, Masson and Peter van Haecht, who subsequently commissioned the cabinets from ébénistes such as Michel Verbirt, Dirk Topts or Nicolas Verbert. The giltmetal, silver and copper was similarly supplied metalsmith like Moemans and Somers.
Further related examples include a cabinet, retaining its original balustrade from Glemham Hall illustrated in C. Hussey, Glemham Hall, Country Life, 1 January 1910, which another cabinet in the collection of the Duke of Richmond and Gordon at Goodwood House, Sussex was reputedly given by Charles II.
A related cabinet on giltwood stand was sold anonymously at Sotheby's New York, 16 May 1987, lot 134, while a similar cabinet with later stand and smaller proportions from the château de Beloeil was sold by the Prince de Ligne, Sotheby's London, 9 December 1994, lot 90.
Holyrood House was placed at the disposal of Louis XVIII from 1796 to 1814 and Charles X from 1830 to 1832 by George Prince of Wales later George IV and William IV respectively.