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拍品專文
THE ATTRIBUTION
This superb black and gilt-japanned bureau-cabinet is part of a group traditionally thought to be German, based on one red and gilt-japanned cabinet formerly at Schloss Pillnitz, Dresden, that has been attributed to the Dresden workshops of Martin Schnell. The latter was responsible for the embellishment of Dresden's Hollandischen (Dutch) Palais and Schloss Pillnitz's Wasserpalais (Water Palace) (G. Haase, Dresdner Möbel, Leipzig, 1983, no. 141). That another bureau-cabinet of exactly the same type was sold at Christie's Madrid, 16 May 1974 (illustrated in Christie's Review, 1974, p. 415) suggests the possibility of an Iberian commission, if not manufacture. To further confirm this theory, the magnificent gilt-gesso bureau-cabinet that until recently had remained in Portugal with an unproven Royal Portuguese provenance shares many similarities of construction with the present cabinet: the same feet [its pair, sold anonymously, Sotheby's, London, 3 June 1977, lot 93 was fitted with the original pattern of foot], four-sided rebates on the underside of the drawers, a brass lock plate on the left door to receive the locking bolts, a four prong lock in the flap, similar ogival pediment profile, the same handles on the drawer fronts [again, the handles on the gilt-gesso cabinet were replaced following the original pattern also found on its pair], the same pattern of handles at the sides.
Whilst three cabinets have a connexion with Spain and Portugal and one with Dresden, at the very least it suggests that the manufacturing location for the group was unlikely to have been either Iberia or Saxony. The strongest possibility is that this cabinet and its group were made in London, for export to continental Europe. Often such cabinets were delivered as pairs, as in the example of the Royal Portuguese cabinets [both pairs: see R. W. Symonds, 'A Royal Scrutoire', Connoisseur, June 1940, pp. 233-236]; and the famous Infantado suite by Giles Grendey. The pair to the cabinet sold at Christie's, Madrid in 1974 (and later with Mallett, 1978), may well be one now in The Gerstenfeld Collection (E. Lennox-Boyd (ed.), Masterpieces of English Furniture: The Gerstenfeld Collection, London, 1998, pls. 18, 35, 57 & cat. no. 7, p. 195), although the dcoration on the inside of the doors is quite different.
A further elaboration of this cabinet is the unusual removable central cupboard in the bureau section. This is richly inlaid with a parquetry floor and when removed reveals a japanned panel flanked on either side by a column of small drawers. Behind and below the removable cupboard are concealed drawers.
THE MASTER OF THE ROYAL PORTUGUESE CABINETS
Whilst currently impossible to firmly attribute this cabinet or its associated group to any known maker, the idiosyncrasies of the cabinets within the group suggest a common cabinet-maker; there are several obvious candidates. In the 1720s, a drawing of a bureau-cabinet, featuring a similar ogival-scrolled pediment, was included amongst designs made by Russian craftsmen, who had been sent to London for training by Tsar Peter the Great (N. I. Guseva, 'Fedor Martynov: Russian Master Cabinet Maker', Furniture History, 1994, p. 95, no. 3). It has been suggested that their training may have taken place with the Strand cabinet-maker Peter Miller, who, in 1724, is recorded as executing a walnut bureau-cabinet of this form for export to Spain (Adam Bowett, Geffrye Museum Symposium, January 2002 and C. Gilbert, The Pictorial Dictionary of Marked London Furniture 1700-1840, Leeds, 1996, figs. 646 & 647). The cabinet's interior, like those of a number of related cabinets, is richly equipped with pigeon-holes and drawer nests around a 'tabernacle' compartment. Other leading candidates for the authorship of these splendid cabinets might be the St John's Square, Clerkenwell cabinet and chair-maker Giles Grendey who, as has already been noted, was commissioned to supply a large suite of red and gilt-japanned furniture for the Dukes of Infantado, or possibly James Moore and John Gumley, who were also established after 1714 in partnership together at 'the upper Part of the New Exchange in the Strand'.
THE GROUP OF ASSOCIATED CABINETS
1. The present lot
2. A red and gilt-japanned bureau-cabinet formerly at Schloss Pillnitz, Dresden
3. A red and gilt-japanned bureau-cabinet in The Gerstenfeld Collection
4. A red and gilt-japanned bureau-cabinet sold Christie's, Madrid, 1974 and with Mallett, London in 1978
5. The pair of Royal Portuguese gilt-gesso bureau-cabinets, one of which was sold anonymously, Christie's, London, 4 July 2002, lot 100; the other sold anonymously, Sotheby's, London, 3 June 1977, lot 93
6. A walnut bureau-cabinet sold anonymously, Christie's, London, 28 November 2002, lot 112.
7. A walnut bureau-cabinet, sold by Sir Thomas Beevor, Bt., Christie's, London, 14 June 2001, lot 150.
8. A walnut bureau-cabinet, advertised by M. Turpin in Connoisseur, June 1969.
THE ICONOGRAPHY
The golden ornament of its reed-enriched architecture combines the concept of a paradisical Golden Age imagined by the ancient poets, such as Hesiod with Confucian concepts of noble virtue. Lion-paws, recalling Bacchus as triumphal Roman fertility and harvest-deity; issue from the Roman acanthus that wreaths its serpentined Roman 'sarcophagus' chest. Its form harmonises with the cabinet's triumphal-arched temple pediment, whose ogival serpentined form was then associated with 'Roman' garden temples. It is also likely that a mask of the nature deity Venus graced its golden cresting (now missing).
THE BUREAU-CABINET
This spectacular 18th century cabinet unites the 17th century form of drawer-fitted cabinet with the bureau-dressing-table and the 'commode' chest-of-drawers; while also providing the services of the mirror-sconce with fitted candle-slides and the book/music stand with rest-fitted 'fall'. Appropriate for the embellishment of a 'salle de reception' bedroom apartment and storage of exotic textiles etc., its Roman architecture is whimsically dressed in the India Chinese taste. It is flowered and japanned in 'picturesque' manner with trompe l'oiel lacquer to harmonise with the china furnishings of such rooms and their tea-table equipage.
Its highly varnished black japan provides a mirrored surface for floating, in 'easy disposition', golden landscapes inhabited by small figures, and large birds and insects as derived from Chinese Japanese lacquer and porcelain, as demonstrated in Messrs Stalker and Parker's, Treatise of Japanning and Varnishing, 1688. The tympanum of the cabinet's pediment, beneath a garlanded and mosaic-trellised cornice, depicts paired hawks. Such paired birds, derived from export lacquer, also appear on japanned furniture, such as the Chinese-fretted chairs listed in a bedroom apartment at Ham House, Surrey in the 1680s (O. Impey and C. Jorg, Japanese Export Lacquer, Amsterdam, 2005, fig. 653).
This superb black and gilt-japanned bureau-cabinet is part of a group traditionally thought to be German, based on one red and gilt-japanned cabinet formerly at Schloss Pillnitz, Dresden, that has been attributed to the Dresden workshops of Martin Schnell. The latter was responsible for the embellishment of Dresden's Hollandischen (Dutch) Palais and Schloss Pillnitz's Wasserpalais (Water Palace) (G. Haase, Dresdner Möbel, Leipzig, 1983, no. 141). That another bureau-cabinet of exactly the same type was sold at Christie's Madrid, 16 May 1974 (illustrated in Christie's Review, 1974, p. 415) suggests the possibility of an Iberian commission, if not manufacture. To further confirm this theory, the magnificent gilt-gesso bureau-cabinet that until recently had remained in Portugal with an unproven Royal Portuguese provenance shares many similarities of construction with the present cabinet: the same feet [its pair, sold anonymously, Sotheby's, London, 3 June 1977, lot 93 was fitted with the original pattern of foot], four-sided rebates on the underside of the drawers, a brass lock plate on the left door to receive the locking bolts, a four prong lock in the flap, similar ogival pediment profile, the same handles on the drawer fronts [again, the handles on the gilt-gesso cabinet were replaced following the original pattern also found on its pair], the same pattern of handles at the sides.
Whilst three cabinets have a connexion with Spain and Portugal and one with Dresden, at the very least it suggests that the manufacturing location for the group was unlikely to have been either Iberia or Saxony. The strongest possibility is that this cabinet and its group were made in London, for export to continental Europe. Often such cabinets were delivered as pairs, as in the example of the Royal Portuguese cabinets [both pairs: see R. W. Symonds, 'A Royal Scrutoire', Connoisseur, June 1940, pp. 233-236]; and the famous Infantado suite by Giles Grendey. The pair to the cabinet sold at Christie's, Madrid in 1974 (and later with Mallett, 1978), may well be one now in The Gerstenfeld Collection (E. Lennox-Boyd (ed.), Masterpieces of English Furniture: The Gerstenfeld Collection, London, 1998, pls. 18, 35, 57 & cat. no. 7, p. 195), although the dcoration on the inside of the doors is quite different.
A further elaboration of this cabinet is the unusual removable central cupboard in the bureau section. This is richly inlaid with a parquetry floor and when removed reveals a japanned panel flanked on either side by a column of small drawers. Behind and below the removable cupboard are concealed drawers.
THE MASTER OF THE ROYAL PORTUGUESE CABINETS
Whilst currently impossible to firmly attribute this cabinet or its associated group to any known maker, the idiosyncrasies of the cabinets within the group suggest a common cabinet-maker; there are several obvious candidates. In the 1720s, a drawing of a bureau-cabinet, featuring a similar ogival-scrolled pediment, was included amongst designs made by Russian craftsmen, who had been sent to London for training by Tsar Peter the Great (N. I. Guseva, 'Fedor Martynov: Russian Master Cabinet Maker', Furniture History, 1994, p. 95, no. 3). It has been suggested that their training may have taken place with the Strand cabinet-maker Peter Miller, who, in 1724, is recorded as executing a walnut bureau-cabinet of this form for export to Spain (Adam Bowett, Geffrye Museum Symposium, January 2002 and C. Gilbert, The Pictorial Dictionary of Marked London Furniture 1700-1840, Leeds, 1996, figs. 646 & 647). The cabinet's interior, like those of a number of related cabinets, is richly equipped with pigeon-holes and drawer nests around a 'tabernacle' compartment. Other leading candidates for the authorship of these splendid cabinets might be the St John's Square, Clerkenwell cabinet and chair-maker Giles Grendey who, as has already been noted, was commissioned to supply a large suite of red and gilt-japanned furniture for the Dukes of Infantado, or possibly James Moore and John Gumley, who were also established after 1714 in partnership together at 'the upper Part of the New Exchange in the Strand'.
THE GROUP OF ASSOCIATED CABINETS
1. The present lot
2. A red and gilt-japanned bureau-cabinet formerly at Schloss Pillnitz, Dresden
3. A red and gilt-japanned bureau-cabinet in The Gerstenfeld Collection
4. A red and gilt-japanned bureau-cabinet sold Christie's, Madrid, 1974 and with Mallett, London in 1978
5. The pair of Royal Portuguese gilt-gesso bureau-cabinets, one of which was sold anonymously, Christie's, London, 4 July 2002, lot 100; the other sold anonymously, Sotheby's, London, 3 June 1977, lot 93
6. A walnut bureau-cabinet sold anonymously, Christie's, London, 28 November 2002, lot 112.
7. A walnut bureau-cabinet, sold by Sir Thomas Beevor, Bt., Christie's, London, 14 June 2001, lot 150.
8. A walnut bureau-cabinet, advertised by M. Turpin in Connoisseur, June 1969.
THE ICONOGRAPHY
The golden ornament of its reed-enriched architecture combines the concept of a paradisical Golden Age imagined by the ancient poets, such as Hesiod with Confucian concepts of noble virtue. Lion-paws, recalling Bacchus as triumphal Roman fertility and harvest-deity; issue from the Roman acanthus that wreaths its serpentined Roman 'sarcophagus' chest. Its form harmonises with the cabinet's triumphal-arched temple pediment, whose ogival serpentined form was then associated with 'Roman' garden temples. It is also likely that a mask of the nature deity Venus graced its golden cresting (now missing).
THE BUREAU-CABINET
This spectacular 18th century cabinet unites the 17th century form of drawer-fitted cabinet with the bureau-dressing-table and the 'commode' chest-of-drawers; while also providing the services of the mirror-sconce with fitted candle-slides and the book/music stand with rest-fitted 'fall'. Appropriate for the embellishment of a 'salle de reception' bedroom apartment and storage of exotic textiles etc., its Roman architecture is whimsically dressed in the India Chinese taste. It is flowered and japanned in 'picturesque' manner with trompe l'oiel lacquer to harmonise with the china furnishings of such rooms and their tea-table equipage.
Its highly varnished black japan provides a mirrored surface for floating, in 'easy disposition', golden landscapes inhabited by small figures, and large birds and insects as derived from Chinese Japanese lacquer and porcelain, as demonstrated in Messrs Stalker and Parker's, Treatise of Japanning and Varnishing, 1688. The tympanum of the cabinet's pediment, beneath a garlanded and mosaic-trellised cornice, depicts paired hawks. Such paired birds, derived from export lacquer, also appear on japanned furniture, such as the Chinese-fretted chairs listed in a bedroom apartment at Ham House, Surrey in the 1680s (O. Impey and C. Jorg, Japanese Export Lacquer, Amsterdam, 2005, fig. 653).