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Lot Essay
The delicately rendered 'seaweed' or 'arabesque' marquetry (called 'filigree' in the early eighteenth century) is characterized by its two-dimensionality and dense foliate scrolls, and its panels are cut in a single operation.
Adam Bowett, who illustrates this chest in his English Furniture 1660-1714 from Charles II to Queen Anne (fig. 7:13), suggests that the chest may be attributable to Gerrit Jensen (d. 1715), pre-eminent 'Cabbinet maker and Glasse seller' who supplied furniture for the Royal Palaces including Windsor, Hampton Court, Kensington House and Whitehall from 1690 through 1714. The top inlay prominently displays Royal crowns which compares to a writing table of 'fine markatree with a Crown & cypher' supplied by Jensen for Kensington House in 1690 for £22 10s (R. W. Symonds, 'Gerrit Jensen, Cabinet-maker to the Royal Household', The Connoisseur, January-June 1935, vol. 95, pp. 268-269, figs. I and II). Jensen's extensive commissions for the Royal family included utilitarian furniture such as the 'chest of Drawers upon balls' executed in 1697 (Bowett, op. cit., p. 202).
Jensen's oeuvre often reflected the influence of French design in form and ornament as promoted by Royal designer Daniel Marot as well as Marot's brother-in-law, the French ébéniste Pierre Gôle with whom there is recorded correspondence. The 'poetic' satyr masks with feathered headdresses shown in profile are inspired by the designs of Jean Berain. Similar masks feature on a pair of chairs originally from the collection of Lord Trevor at Brynkinalt, Clwyd, Wales and sold in these Rooms, 13 April 2000, lot 25.
Jensen's aristocratic patrons included Ralph; 1st Duke of Montague at Boughton House, Northamptonshire, the 5th Earl of Exeter at Burghley House, Lincolnshire and the 6th Duke of Somerset at Petworth House, Sussex for whom he supplied a marquetry table top bearing the Duchess of Somerset's monogram.
A chest by the same maker, with virtually identical inlay to the top, was sold anonymously, Sotheby's, London, 6 June 2006, lot 234. Another similar, incorporating the crown motif from the Wills collection, is illustrated in F. Lenygon, Furniture in England from 1600-1760, London, 1911, p. 243, figs. 373-374.
Adam Bowett, who illustrates this chest in his English Furniture 1660-1714 from Charles II to Queen Anne (fig. 7:13), suggests that the chest may be attributable to Gerrit Jensen (d. 1715), pre-eminent 'Cabbinet maker and Glasse seller' who supplied furniture for the Royal Palaces including Windsor, Hampton Court, Kensington House and Whitehall from 1690 through 1714. The top inlay prominently displays Royal crowns which compares to a writing table of 'fine markatree with a Crown & cypher' supplied by Jensen for Kensington House in 1690 for £22 10s (R. W. Symonds, 'Gerrit Jensen, Cabinet-maker to the Royal Household', The Connoisseur, January-June 1935, vol. 95, pp. 268-269, figs. I and II). Jensen's extensive commissions for the Royal family included utilitarian furniture such as the 'chest of Drawers upon balls' executed in 1697 (Bowett, op. cit., p. 202).
Jensen's oeuvre often reflected the influence of French design in form and ornament as promoted by Royal designer Daniel Marot as well as Marot's brother-in-law, the French ébéniste Pierre Gôle with whom there is recorded correspondence. The 'poetic' satyr masks with feathered headdresses shown in profile are inspired by the designs of Jean Berain. Similar masks feature on a pair of chairs originally from the collection of Lord Trevor at Brynkinalt, Clwyd, Wales and sold in these Rooms, 13 April 2000, lot 25.
Jensen's aristocratic patrons included Ralph; 1st Duke of Montague at Boughton House, Northamptonshire, the 5th Earl of Exeter at Burghley House, Lincolnshire and the 6th Duke of Somerset at Petworth House, Sussex for whom he supplied a marquetry table top bearing the Duchess of Somerset's monogram.
A chest by the same maker, with virtually identical inlay to the top, was sold anonymously, Sotheby's, London, 6 June 2006, lot 234. Another similar, incorporating the crown motif from the Wills collection, is illustrated in F. Lenygon, Furniture in England from 1600-1760, London, 1911, p. 243, figs. 373-374.