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Lot Essay
This remarkable and attractive japonaiserie cabinet is part of a group of similarly-decorated pieces. A cabinet with two large doors enclosing a plain interior with two shelves above two drawers is in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam (exhibited Imitation and Inspiration, Japanese influence in Dutch art from 1650 to the present, Tokyo (Suntory Museum of Art) and Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 1991-1992, no. 40). Its decoration is extremely closely related to that of the present cabinet and there can be no doubt that both objects originated in the same workshop. One of the doors of the Amsterdam cabinet displays a sailing boat inlaid with mother-of-pearl much like that on the central door of the present piece, and the sides are painted with very similar birds. Other comparable cabinets were with Pieter Hoogendijk (exhibited at the TEFAF at Maastricht in 1997, illustrated on p.126 of the catalogue) and with Guus Röell & Deon Viljoen (catalogue Uit verre streken, 2005, no.2).
The decoration represents an individual interpretation of Japanese lacquerwork. Since the early 17th Century, many attempts were made in Europe to imitate the much admired Oriental lacquer. Its vital ingredient, the sap of the lacquer tree or rhus vernificera, could not be obtained in the West, but many recipes were thought out attempting to approximate its lustre and hardness. Early 17th Century Japanese lacquer made for export to Europe, the so-called namban work, was typically enriched with inlay of mother-of-pearl, and this is echoed on the present piece and the others from the same group. Amusingly, the mother-of-pearl is here partly employed in imitation of the gilt-brass mounts to be found on Japanese lacquer cabinets produced for the export market.
This group of japanned pieces is generally considered to be Dutch. However, Jean-Claude Battault of the Musée de la Musique in Paris has pointed out that in the collection of that institution there is a French late 17th-century harpsichord in its original japanned case which is undoubtedly by the same hand as the Rijksmuseum cabinet and the group of related pieces (illustrated and described in Un musée aux rayons X, Musée de la Musique, Paris, inv.no. E.996.33.1). In addition, there recently was on the Paris art market a coffer on stand of typical French form that was again decorated by the same hand. Indeed, the shaped aprons to the stand of the present piece are markedly French in feeling, although similar features were copied on English cabinets of the late 17th century as well. It seems likely, therefore, that the entire group, including the present cabinet, was produced in Paris by an unknown vernisseur. Japanese lacquer cabinets were of course highly prized in France. In the well-known portrait of Madame de Montespan of around 1680 in the Uffizi, Louis XIV's mistress is shown reclining on a daybed in front of the gallery at the Château de Clagny which is lined with Japanese cabinets on French stands, bedecked with Chinese porcelain (Peter Thornton, Seventeenth-century Interior Decoration in England, France & Holland, New Haven and London 1978, fig. 20). Naturally, Parisian furniture-makers were keen to imitate these precious items. The present cabinet probably represents one of their more successful attempts to do so.
The decoration represents an individual interpretation of Japanese lacquerwork. Since the early 17th Century, many attempts were made in Europe to imitate the much admired Oriental lacquer. Its vital ingredient, the sap of the lacquer tree or rhus vernificera, could not be obtained in the West, but many recipes were thought out attempting to approximate its lustre and hardness. Early 17th Century Japanese lacquer made for export to Europe, the so-called namban work, was typically enriched with inlay of mother-of-pearl, and this is echoed on the present piece and the others from the same group. Amusingly, the mother-of-pearl is here partly employed in imitation of the gilt-brass mounts to be found on Japanese lacquer cabinets produced for the export market.
This group of japanned pieces is generally considered to be Dutch. However, Jean-Claude Battault of the Musée de la Musique in Paris has pointed out that in the collection of that institution there is a French late 17th-century harpsichord in its original japanned case which is undoubtedly by the same hand as the Rijksmuseum cabinet and the group of related pieces (illustrated and described in Un musée aux rayons X, Musée de la Musique, Paris, inv.no. E.996.33.1). In addition, there recently was on the Paris art market a coffer on stand of typical French form that was again decorated by the same hand. Indeed, the shaped aprons to the stand of the present piece are markedly French in feeling, although similar features were copied on English cabinets of the late 17th century as well. It seems likely, therefore, that the entire group, including the present cabinet, was produced in Paris by an unknown vernisseur. Japanese lacquer cabinets were of course highly prized in France. In the well-known portrait of Madame de Montespan of around 1680 in the Uffizi, Louis XIV's mistress is shown reclining on a daybed in front of the gallery at the Château de Clagny which is lined with Japanese cabinets on French stands, bedecked with Chinese porcelain (Peter Thornton, Seventeenth-century Interior Decoration in England, France & Holland, New Haven and London 1978, fig. 20). Naturally, Parisian furniture-makers were keen to imitate these precious items. The present cabinet probably represents one of their more successful attempts to do so.