LOT 18
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A George I Black and Gold Japanned Double Dome Bureau Cabinet, Circa 1725
作品估价：USD 30,000 - 50,000
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26%
图录号：
18
拍品名称：
A George I Black and Gold Japanned Double Dome Bureau Cabinet, Circa 1725
拍品描述：
the double dome crest above two mirrored doors with bevelled plates opening to an interior arrangement of a central cupboard flanked by half-columns, folio slides, pigeonholes and long and short drawers, the inside doors and central cupboard doors decorated withcommedia dell'artefigures; the middle section with slant front revealing internal arrangement of central cupboard flanked by half-columns, pigeonholes and small drawers over an internal well with sliding cover; the lower section with a graduated tier of two short over two longer drawers, on later bracket feet; handles and locks replaced; restorations and retouching to japanned decoration; plates apparently original and resilvered
height 83 1/2 in.; width 41 in.; depth 23 1/4 in.
212 cm; 104 cm; 59 cm
出处
Christie's London, 7 June 2007, lot 55
图录说明
This cabinet uses the European style of paintwork called ‘japanning’that imitated the lacquer produced in China and Japan, and whose connotations of luxurious exoticism made it popular during the second half of the seventeenth century and much of the eighteenth. The present example takes the common double-arched form for bureau-cabinets of this type, often associated with the celebrated London cabinetmaker John Belchier (1699-1753) on account of the outstanding documented examples he supplied to Erddig in Wrexham, North Wales (NT 1147114andNT 1147081).
However, this cabinet is exciting in its unusual choice of decorative motifs, which are worth considering in detail. Japanned ornament tended to be limited to an approximated version of the subjects depicted in the lacquer produced in China and Japan, though the dearth of original artefacts meant that the East Asian originals were not necessarily fully understood in Europe. The most common choice for decoration on japanning, alongside flora and fauna, waschinoiseriefigures, generally holding fans and sometimes staged alongside porcelain vessels.1A more innovative example has drawer fronts that depict an array of Chinese art objects in the manner of the widespread motif in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Chinese ornament of the ‘hundred antiques’ (po-ku).2While there is some precedent for diverging from East Asian source material in some ways – the 1688Treatise of Japanninghas instructions for creating blue, chestnut and olive backgrounds that didn’t exist in true lacquer3– there are seldom examples of European figures on japanned pieces. One other example with non-chinoiseriefigures on the inside doors was a scarlet japanned bureau cabinet sold at Sotheby’s in 1989, possibly of German manufacture.4
On the internal faces of the doors, the japanner has chosen stock characters from Italiancommedia dell’arte: to the left door proper we have the boastful Scaramouche with his guitar, often beaten for his excessive pride by Harlequin, who can be seen brandishing his ‘slap stick’ on the opposite door. The fact thatcommedia dell’artecharacters are accompanied by two European figures on the central doors dressed somewhat curiously suggests an overall theme of a masquerade ball. While the tricorne hat, long curled hair and folding fan worn by the lady are all approximately contemporary to the bureau-cabinet’s construction in the 1720s,5the gentleman’s fashions are more typical of the early seventeenth century and so would have been clearly read as a historical costume. By the time this cabinet was made, the combination of a fallen ruff with a belted doublet and full sleeves were the fashions of a bygone era – they are seen for example on Daniel Mijtens’s 1629 portrait of Charles I, now in the Metropolitan Museum, New York (06.1289).
1Chinoiseriefigures in general are widespread, but for one with porcelain in particular, see the cabinet formerly at Oversholm Castle in Sweden soldChristie's London, 30 November 2000, lot 50.
2Sotheby’s New York, 21 January 1995, lot 431.
3J. Stalker and G. Parker, A Treatise of Japanning and Varnishing…, London, 1688, pp.23-26. Available at: [accessed 30 July 2025].
4Sotheby’s New York, 5 May 1989, lot 21.
5The tricorne’s plumes possibly suggest a stylised version of earlier Louis XIV fashions, though it is difficult to be certain.
height 83 1/2 in.; width 41 in.; depth 23 1/4 in.
212 cm; 104 cm; 59 cm
出处
Christie's London, 7 June 2007, lot 55
图录说明
This cabinet uses the European style of paintwork called ‘japanning’that imitated the lacquer produced in China and Japan, and whose connotations of luxurious exoticism made it popular during the second half of the seventeenth century and much of the eighteenth. The present example takes the common double-arched form for bureau-cabinets of this type, often associated with the celebrated London cabinetmaker John Belchier (1699-1753) on account of the outstanding documented examples he supplied to Erddig in Wrexham, North Wales (NT 1147114andNT 1147081).
However, this cabinet is exciting in its unusual choice of decorative motifs, which are worth considering in detail. Japanned ornament tended to be limited to an approximated version of the subjects depicted in the lacquer produced in China and Japan, though the dearth of original artefacts meant that the East Asian originals were not necessarily fully understood in Europe. The most common choice for decoration on japanning, alongside flora and fauna, waschinoiseriefigures, generally holding fans and sometimes staged alongside porcelain vessels.1A more innovative example has drawer fronts that depict an array of Chinese art objects in the manner of the widespread motif in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Chinese ornament of the ‘hundred antiques’ (po-ku).2While there is some precedent for diverging from East Asian source material in some ways – the 1688Treatise of Japanninghas instructions for creating blue, chestnut and olive backgrounds that didn’t exist in true lacquer3– there are seldom examples of European figures on japanned pieces. One other example with non-chinoiseriefigures on the inside doors was a scarlet japanned bureau cabinet sold at Sotheby’s in 1989, possibly of German manufacture.4
On the internal faces of the doors, the japanner has chosen stock characters from Italiancommedia dell’arte: to the left door proper we have the boastful Scaramouche with his guitar, often beaten for his excessive pride by Harlequin, who can be seen brandishing his ‘slap stick’ on the opposite door. The fact thatcommedia dell’artecharacters are accompanied by two European figures on the central doors dressed somewhat curiously suggests an overall theme of a masquerade ball. While the tricorne hat, long curled hair and folding fan worn by the lady are all approximately contemporary to the bureau-cabinet’s construction in the 1720s,5the gentleman’s fashions are more typical of the early seventeenth century and so would have been clearly read as a historical costume. By the time this cabinet was made, the combination of a fallen ruff with a belted doublet and full sleeves were the fashions of a bygone era – they are seen for example on Daniel Mijtens’s 1629 portrait of Charles I, now in the Metropolitan Museum, New York (06.1289).
1Chinoiseriefigures in general are widespread, but for one with porcelain in particular, see the cabinet formerly at Oversholm Castle in Sweden soldChristie's London, 30 November 2000, lot 50.
2Sotheby’s New York, 21 January 1995, lot 431.
3J. Stalker and G. Parker, A Treatise of Japanning and Varnishing…, London, 1688, pp.23-26. Available at:
4Sotheby’s New York, 5 May 1989, lot 21.
5The tricorne’s plumes possibly suggest a stylised version of earlier Louis XIV fashions, though it is difficult to be certain.