LATE 17TH CENTURY

This beautiful cabinet, japanned in bas-relief with golden Chinese garden landscapes and brass-enriched in the so-called 'India' fashion, imitates the Japanese lacquer cabinets shipped to Europe from the mid-17th century by East India Trading Companies. Its stand is conceived in the French Louis XIV 'Roman' fashion, popularized in the late 17th century by engravings such as those issued by William III's Paris-trained architect, Daniel Marot (d. 1752). The stand's hermed pillars are draped with stately lambrequins and support an elaborately carved and pierced frieze. While the japanning reflects the teachings of John Stalker and George Parker's Treatise of Japanning and Varnishing, 1688, which explained methods for amateurs of 'Japan' to imitate imported Chinese lacquer, the decoration also relates to the work of the celebrated Berlin japanner Gerard Dagly, such as his cabinet that is now displayed in Schloss Weilburg, Hesse (I. Reepen, Chinoiserie-Mobel und Wanderverkleidungen, Bad Homburg, 1996, fig. 166). The English taste for these late 17th century lacquer, japanned and 'bantamwork' cabinets is discussed in A. Bowett, English Furniture 1660-1714, p. 144. A closely related cabinet on a silvered stand with almost identical metalwork was sold anonymously, Christie's, London, 4 March 2004, lot 181 and another with pierced cresting was sold anonymously, Christie's, London, 1 July 2004, lot 14. A closely related stand, with figural supports and similar deep pierced apron carving, supports an unusual cabinet covered in beadwork and needlework, reputedly Tudor in date and worked by the ‘Four Maries’ – the ladies in waiting to Mary Queen of Scots (Mary Livingstone, Mary Seton, Mary Beaton and Mary Fleming). The cabinet remained with the Livingstone of Callendar family until the early 20th century and was later sold at Sotheby’s, London, 13 May 1960, lot 159 (and subsequently at Christie’s, London, 23 May 2013, lot 25).