.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
拍品专文
This beautiful early eighteenth century japanned bureau-cabinet would have been a significant commission by a patron entranced by the exotic art of the Orient. Appropriate for the furnishing of a bedroom apartment, it is exotically decorated in the Oriental manner with gold on a glossy dark blue ground, painted or 'japanned' in imitation of lacquer. It is decorated overall with vignettes inspired by contemporary Chinese screens and chests in the Chinoiserie style, in the fashion promoted by Messrs. Stalker and Parker whose A Treatise of Japanning and Varnishing, was published in 1688.
After the restoration of Charles II in 1660, trade with the Far East flourished and the supply of Chinese lacquer screens, cabinets and chests with Chinese ornament could not satisfy the high demand. Consequently, lacquer work was imitated by English and Continental cabinet-makers and amateur painters; this fashion reached its peak in the first decades of the eighteenth century. After this period, the craft declined as Oriental lacquer panels were once again incorporated into English cabinetwork. Examples of this later technique can be found in the work of the most prominent cabinet-makers including John Linnell at Badminton House and Thomas Chippendale at Nostell Priory and Harewood House.
John Stalker and George Parker's A Treatise of Japanning and Varnishing provided instruction and designs for the craft. Using multiple coats of varnish (gum dissolved in wine spirits) mixed with pigments and glazes, consecutive coats were applied, smoothed and polished to produce the varnished ground. The metals used for the ornamentation were a mixture of 'gold-dust' imported from Germany which 'enjoys a lively bright lustre', English silver dust and powdered golds and coppers. The ornament was painted on raised areas (a paste of whiting, pigment and gum) which was 'cut, scraped and carved' to the design used, or directly onto the varnished surface.
GILES GRENDEY AND THE EXPORT TRADE
Among the best known purveyors of japanned wares was Giles Grendey (d. 1780) of St, Johns's Square, Clerkenwell. Grendey established a thriving business supplying all manner of cabinet goods, chairs and looking-glasses. In particular he produced japanned furniture for the export trade, notably for the Iberian peninsular where such work was much in demand. His most celebrated commission was the extensive suite of more than seventy-seven scarlet-japanned items including seat furniture en suite with 'pier-set' card-tables, mirrors and secretaire-cabinets, supplied around 1740 for the Duke of Infantado's Spanish castle at Lazcano in northern Spain.
Comparable japanned bureau-cabinets sold at auction include one bearing the signature of Daniel Massey, probably a japanner of St. Giles-in-the-Fields, sold anonymously Christie's, London, 3 November 2011, lot 48 (£79,250 including premium), and another with a 20th century Italian provenance sold Christie's, New York, 20 May 2014, lot 134 ($329,000 including premium).
After the restoration of Charles II in 1660, trade with the Far East flourished and the supply of Chinese lacquer screens, cabinets and chests with Chinese ornament could not satisfy the high demand. Consequently, lacquer work was imitated by English and Continental cabinet-makers and amateur painters; this fashion reached its peak in the first decades of the eighteenth century. After this period, the craft declined as Oriental lacquer panels were once again incorporated into English cabinetwork. Examples of this later technique can be found in the work of the most prominent cabinet-makers including John Linnell at Badminton House and Thomas Chippendale at Nostell Priory and Harewood House.
John Stalker and George Parker's A Treatise of Japanning and Varnishing provided instruction and designs for the craft. Using multiple coats of varnish (gum dissolved in wine spirits) mixed with pigments and glazes, consecutive coats were applied, smoothed and polished to produce the varnished ground. The metals used for the ornamentation were a mixture of 'gold-dust' imported from Germany which 'enjoys a lively bright lustre', English silver dust and powdered golds and coppers. The ornament was painted on raised areas (a paste of whiting, pigment and gum) which was 'cut, scraped and carved' to the design used, or directly onto the varnished surface.
GILES GRENDEY AND THE EXPORT TRADE
Among the best known purveyors of japanned wares was Giles Grendey (d. 1780) of St, Johns's Square, Clerkenwell. Grendey established a thriving business supplying all manner of cabinet goods, chairs and looking-glasses. In particular he produced japanned furniture for the export trade, notably for the Iberian peninsular where such work was much in demand. His most celebrated commission was the extensive suite of more than seventy-seven scarlet-japanned items including seat furniture en suite with 'pier-set' card-tables, mirrors and secretaire-cabinets, supplied around 1740 for the Duke of Infantado's Spanish castle at Lazcano in northern Spain.
Comparable japanned bureau-cabinets sold at auction include one bearing the signature of Daniel Massey, probably a japanner of St. Giles-in-the-Fields, sold anonymously Christie's, London, 3 November 2011, lot 48 (£79,250 including premium), and another with a 20th century Italian provenance sold Christie's, New York, 20 May 2014, lot 134 ($329,000 including premium).