PROBABLY FOR THE DANISH MARKET, SECOND QUARTER 18TH CENTURY

This unusual pair of bureau cabinets is a fascinating example of the Chinese Export trade creation of furniture for a specific area within the larger Western market, in this case Denmark. The elaborately-shaped cornice, the highly distinctive and exaggerated form of the lower section as well as the short cabriole legs are all hallmarks of the oeuvre of Danish cabinetmakers of the late Baroque and Rococo periods (see Annette-Isabell Kratz, Altonaer Möbel Des Rokoko und Klassizismus, Hamburg, 1988, pp. 184-185).

An important trade existed between Denmark and the Far East, beginning with the establishment of the Danish East India Company in 1616 by King Christian IV. King Christian VI subsequently revived this lucrative trade, establishing in 1732 the Royal Danish Asiatic Company. A number of pieces of Chinese lacquer furniture were brought back by the captains of the Asiatic Company in the 1730s and sold to King Christian VI, including a pair of lacquer bureau cabinets, originally supplied to the Royal Palace in Copenhagen in 1738 and now in Fredensborg Palace, (see T. Clemmenson, 'Some Furniture Made in China in the English Style, Exported from Canton to Denmark 1735, 1737 and 1738', Furniture History, 1985, pp. 174-177). For another spectacular example of a Chinese Export black and gilt lacquered bureau-cabinet made for the North European market, see Christie's, London, 10 November 2021, lot 81 (£81,250), previously supplied by Mark Hampton to Diana Dollar Knowles.