The Property of The Late MRS. VERNON SANGSTER Sold by Order of the Executors (Lots 359-360)

A CHINESE SOAPSTONE-MOUNTED CABINET-ON-STAND

THE STAND LATE 17TH CENTURY

Details

A CHINESE SOAPSTONE-MOUNTED CABINET-ON-STAND
The stand late 17th Century
The amaranth-framed and brass-mounted cabinet decorated overall with applied soap-stone decoration, the doors each with two panels, the upper panels with birds, butterflies and foliage, the lower panels with figures and landscape scenes, the reverse of the doors with domestic utensils, landscapes and shells, the sides with court scenes, the pair of doors with pierced-metal hinges and lockplate enclosing nine variously-sized beechwood-lined drawers decorated with beasts, landscapes and domestic utensils, on a carved giltwood stand with a pierced apron decorated with a pair of putti flanking a basket of flowers amidst scrolling acanthus leaves and sheaves of corn, the legs with garlanded putti herms with scrolled feet and acanthus leaves, losses and minor restorations to the raised decoration, regilt and re-gessoed, the cabinet reconstructed in England in the 18th Century
46in. (117cm.) wide; 69¾in. (177cm.) high; 25in. (63.5cm.) deep

Provenance

A deceased estate, in these Rooms, 11 October 1962, lot 30

Lot Essay

The Cantonese cabinet, with black and golden veneers, incorporates colourful vignettes, executed in relief with hardstone mosaics, depicting Chinese landscapes, which together with scenes of garden entertainments and flowering-shrubs accompanied by birds and butterflies, correspond to those seen on lacquer screens and cabinets commissioned by East Indian Trading Companies in the late 17th Century. One such cabinet, incorporating relief lacquer vignettes, was adapted around 1700 to provide door-panels for a Louis XIV tortoiseshell and brass-veneered medal-cabinet that is thought to have been executed by André-Charles Boulle (d.1732) and is now in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris (Bibliothèque Historique de la Ville de Paris, 'Trafic d'influences, meubles de lacque et gôt extreme-oriental aux XVII et XVIIème Siècles,' Exhibition catalogue, Paris, 1989, and C. Sargentson, Merchants and Luxury Markets, Stroud, 1996, p.85, pl.52). A set of six 18th Century related hardstone relief panels were offered at Christie's Hong Kong, 29 September, lot 940.

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