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Lot Essay
These cabinets, designed in bold neoclassical style with brass-fluted corners, are distinguished by their rare Japanese lacquer panels depicting hawks tethered to their perches—an evocative reference to the elite sport of takagari, practiced by Japan’s military class from the 14th century. Such imagery underscores the deep cultural symbolism and artistry of Japanese lacquer, here reimagined within the refined tradition of 18th-century French cabinetmaking. Likely the work of leading ébénistes such as Levasseur, and linked to prominent marchands merciers like Claude-François Julliot, these cabinets epitomise the luxurious cross-cultural aesthetic prized by Europe's most discerning collectors.
Takagari (hawking) had a long tradition in Japan, having developed in the 14th and 15th Centuries as a sport for the military class among whom it constituted an important status symbol. These hawks were used to catch cranes, wild geese and other wild fowl. Hawks have been a popular theme in Japanese painting from the 14th and 15th centuries onwards. An eight-fold screen by Kamiya Haruzane in the Tokugawa Art Museum, Japan, with very similar hawks, from the Edo period although probably copied from an earlier painting, was exhibited 'The Shogun Age Exhibition', Exhibition Catalogue, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 17 December 1983 - 26 February 1984, p.80- 81, no.51.
This form of side cabinet appears among the oeuvre of a number of the leading ébénistes working for marchand-merciers such as Claude-Francois Julliot. A lacquer cabinet of similar style stamped M. Carlin was sold from the collection of Jacques Dubois de Chefdebien, Ader, Paris, 13 and 14 February, 1941, and is illustrated M. Fouquier, Les Belles Aventures d'un Marteau d'Ivoire, Paris, 1948, fig. H. Another similar by Nicolas Petit (d. 1791) at Buckingham Palace is illustrated M. Jourdain, Chinese Export Art, Feltham, 1967, rev. edn., p.90, fig. 33. A larger commode attributed to Etienne Levasseur, also mounted with Japanese lacquer panels and of similar design was sold from the collection of Henri de Beaumont at Christie’s, London, 1 December 2005, lot 136. The acanthus leaf-cast feet were particularly favoured by Etienne Levasseur who used them on meubles d’appui such as the pair sold from the Collection of Sydell Miller at Christie’s New York, 10 June 2021, lot 65.
Takagari (hawking) had a long tradition in Japan, having developed in the 14th and 15th Centuries as a sport for the military class among whom it constituted an important status symbol. These hawks were used to catch cranes, wild geese and other wild fowl. Hawks have been a popular theme in Japanese painting from the 14th and 15th centuries onwards. An eight-fold screen by Kamiya Haruzane in the Tokugawa Art Museum, Japan, with very similar hawks, from the Edo period although probably copied from an earlier painting, was exhibited 'The Shogun Age Exhibition', Exhibition Catalogue, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 17 December 1983 - 26 February 1984, p.80- 81, no.51.
This form of side cabinet appears among the oeuvre of a number of the leading ébénistes working for marchand-merciers such as Claude-Francois Julliot. A lacquer cabinet of similar style stamped M. Carlin was sold from the collection of Jacques Dubois de Chefdebien, Ader, Paris, 13 and 14 February, 1941, and is illustrated M. Fouquier, Les Belles Aventures d'un Marteau d'Ivoire, Paris, 1948, fig. H. Another similar by Nicolas Petit (d. 1791) at Buckingham Palace is illustrated M. Jourdain, Chinese Export Art, Feltham, 1967, rev. edn., p.90, fig. 33. A larger commode attributed to Etienne Levasseur, also mounted with Japanese lacquer panels and of similar design was sold from the collection of Henri de Beaumont at Christie’s, London, 1 December 2005, lot 136. The acanthus leaf-cast feet were particularly favoured by Etienne Levasseur who used them on meubles d’appui such as the pair sold from the Collection of Sydell Miller at Christie’s New York, 10 June 2021, lot 65.