SECOND QUARTER 18TH CENTURY

This bureau-cabinet's remarkable bombé base corresponds to that on a bureau bearing the signature of the London cabinet-maker Samuel Bennett (d. 1741), who traded at the 'Sign of the Cabinet' in Lotherbury Street (C. Gilbert, Pictorial Dictionary of Marked London Furniture 1700-1840, Leeds, 1996, p. 106, fig. 114). This type of base is seen on Dutch bureau-cabinets which remained popular in this form until the later 18th century. In England, the form was soon replaced by the more popular straight-sided model of base. After William III's arrival in England and his employment of the former French court 'artist', Daniel Marot, this bureau-cabinet's base reflects the recent French influence in furniture designs (A. Bowett, 'Myths of English Furniture History: Anglo-Dutch', Antique Collecting, October 1999, pp.29-33). It is not known whether this model originated in England or Holland and certainly ties between both countries were close in the early 18th century. Reinier Baarsen has argued that cabinet-makers in Holland around 1700 advertised their products as 'English': this form of bureau-cabinet was generally called a 'Comptoir Cabinet' or an 'Engels Cantoor Cabinet' (R. J. Baarsen, Nederlandse Meubelen, Zwolle, 1993, p. 86).

Further bombé examples, mounted with gilt-metal embellishments on the shaped front corners, include one illustrated in M. Harris and Sons, A Catalogue and Index of Old Furniture and Works of Decorative Art, London, n.d. but c. 1927, part II, p. 163. Two others illustrated in L. Synge, Great English Furniture, London, 1991, p. 49, fig. 43 and p. 50, fig. 44, the first sold from the Hochschild Collection, Sotheby's, London, 1 December 1978, lot 13. Another is illustrated in F. L. Hinckley, A Directory of Queen Anne, Early Georgian and Chippendale Furniture, New York, 1971, p. 245, pl. 440. The form also exists in japanned examples such as one sold Sotheby's, London, 5 May 1989, lot 21 and another sold Sotheby's, New York, 25 January 1997, lot 221.