A PIEDMONTESE BLACK AND GILT-JAPANNED BUREAU

FIRST HALF 18TH CENTURY

Details

A PIEDMONTESE BLACK AND GILT-JAPANNED BUREAU
First half 18th Century
Decorated overall with foliate arabesques and scrolls and floral panels, the bombé shaped top with canted angles surmounted by a domed surperstructure and hinged writing-surface enclosing a red and gilt-japanned fitted interior with three arched pigeon-holes, one long arc-en-arbalète and four small drawers and a compartment with sliding door concealing another long and two small side drawers, the base with three long drawers flanked by pilasters, the sides with conforming decoration and on a stepped moulded base and shaped bracket feet, restorations to the feet, the decoration refreshed
40¾ in. (103.5 cm.) high; 45¼ in. (115 cm.) wide; 21¼ in. (54 cm.) deep

Lot Essay

A bureau-cabinet made in Turin in circa 1730, which has a very similar base to this bureau and closely related decoration, is illustrated in H. Horton, Lacquer of the West, London, 1971, ill. 133. The cartouche-shaped panels filled with polychrome floral sprays were particularly popular at this period, especially with a contrasting ground imitating oriental lacquer. Of typical Piedmontese shape, this bureau is also reminiscent of Venetian furniture, which at the same time used a similar decoration with flower-filled cartouches on a contrasting ground, such as the bureau illustrated in G. Lorenzetti, Lacche Veneziane del Settecento, Venice, 1938, p. 35, no. 113, plate XVIII, illus. 24-25.

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