MID 18TH CENTURY

This 'boogcabinet' demonstrates the full-blown Dutch Louis XV style of the 1760s. Only in this fase did Dutch cabinet-makers truly translate the essence of the rococo. This example is embellished with carefully chosen burr-walnut veneers resembling fine marbles and has assymetrical arched doors, following the lines of the cornice, with serpentine panels elegantly framed by pierced foliate carving. A closely related cabinet, probably from the same workshop, and with similar foliate-enriched doors, was sold from the collection of the Late Captain E.G. Spencer-Churchill at Christie's London, 28 September 1964, lot 346. Interestingly, one of the rare items of Dutch dated furniture of the 18th Century is a cabinet which bears similarities to the two above-mentioned examples. This cabinet, which is in the Collection of the Rijksmuseum, was almost certainly executed in Amsterdam; the drawers have silver handles with the mark of the Amsterdam silversmith Dirk Froger (1708-1780) and the date letter for 1764. (R.J.Baarsen, Nederlandse Meubelen 1600-1800, Zwolle, 1993, pp. 98-99)

The distinctive ornamental gilt-bronze mounts which embellish this cabinet were almost certainly not produced in Holland. Remarkably most mounts on Dutch furniture in the French style as well as on traditional pieces can be traced to Britain and appear in a sales catalogue of a Birmingham metalwork firm, which was producing mounts for export. (N. Goodison, 'The Victoria and Albert Museum's collection of metal-work pattern books', Furniture History Society Journal, 11(1975), pp. 1-30)

See illustration