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Lot Essay
This bureau-cabinet belongs to a group characterised by their particular small size and high quality of cabinet work (by an as yet unidentified craftsman) and which are discussed in Adam Bowett, Early Georgian Furniture 1715 - 1740, 2009, p.72. Bowett suggests that they may have been intended for a girl's dressing room or bedroom on the basis of a description given by the cabinet-makers Gumley & Moore for a desk and bookcase supplied in 1716 for St James' Palace, possibly for either Princess Anne or Amelia; 'For a Walnuttree Desk & Bookcase with a Glass Door for the young Princess' Dressing Room...'.
In the present example the quality of work is typified by the construction of the small interior drawers which are lined in padouk and by the carefully sized and chamfered drawer stops.
Among related examples, one similarly in burr yew and another in walnut were formerly with Messrs. Apter-Fredericks, London. The latter featured a double concave fronted drawer below the fall front of the bureau. The majority of related bureau-cabinets are decorated in imitation of true oriental lacquer, including a green japanned example at Clandon Park, Surrey, formerly in the Gubbay Collection (illustrated in P.Macquoid Dictionary of English Furniture 1954, vol. I, p.135, fig. 26), a black japanned example formerly in the Prescott Collection, a white japanned example formerly in the Collection of the Viscount Leverhulme, and a brown japanned example sold Sotheby's, London, 23 November, 2005, lot 38A. A red japanned example is in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
Further examples with bombé bases are illustrated in Lanto Synge, Mallett Millennium, 1999, one in black lacquer, p.78, pl.75, and a pair in red lacquer, p.79, pl.76.
In the present example the quality of work is typified by the construction of the small interior drawers which are lined in padouk and by the carefully sized and chamfered drawer stops.
Among related examples, one similarly in burr yew and another in walnut were formerly with Messrs. Apter-Fredericks, London. The latter featured a double concave fronted drawer below the fall front of the bureau. The majority of related bureau-cabinets are decorated in imitation of true oriental lacquer, including a green japanned example at Clandon Park, Surrey, formerly in the Gubbay Collection (illustrated in P.Macquoid Dictionary of English Furniture 1954, vol. I, p.135, fig. 26), a black japanned example formerly in the Prescott Collection, a white japanned example formerly in the Collection of the Viscount Leverhulme, and a brown japanned example sold Sotheby's, London, 23 November, 2005, lot 38A. A red japanned example is in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
Further examples with bombé bases are illustrated in Lanto Synge, Mallett Millennium, 1999, one in black lacquer, p.78, pl.75, and a pair in red lacquer, p.79, pl.76.