a dutch oak and ebony cupboard

EARLY 17TH CENTURY

Details
a dutch oak and ebony cupboard
Early 17th Century
The rectangular moulded cornice above a shaped gadrooned border and a strapwork frieze, above a pair of panelled doors centred by raised ebony panels framed by shaped cartouches with ebony studs flanked and divided by tapering panelled pilasters carved with overlapping roundels, enclosing a plain interior with a small coffre-fort, above a entrelac border and a pair of geometrically panelled doors, flanked and divided by fluted pilasters and enclosing a plain interior with a shelf, on square feet
206cm. high x 200cm. wide x 49cm. deep

Lot Essay

This cupboard demonstrates the fashion for restained 'architectural' furniture in the Northern Netherlands in the early 17th century, which is still reminiscent of wall-panellings. A related panelling in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, with similar tapering pilasters and ebony roundels, is illustrated in the Catalogus van meubelen en betimmeringen, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 1952, no.33, fig. 29.
Certain decorative features, like the characteristic scrolling strapwork cartouches 'nailed' by ebony studs, relate to the furniture designs of Paul Vredeman de Vries, which were published in 1630 in Amsterdam. (P.Thornton, Seventeenth Century Interior Decoration in England, France and Holland, London and New Haven, 1978, figs. 91-92, pp. 94-95)

See illustration

More from Furniture, Clocks, Carpets, Sculpture and Works of Art

View All
View All