Offered by Franck Baptiste Paris
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Important wooden cabinet decorated with a vermilion red European varnish.
Rectangular in shape, it opens with two doors revealing an interior with eleven drawers arranged in four rows. Beautiful Chinese-style decoration adorns both sides of the doors, the sides, and the drawer fronts. The front decoration depicts a lakeside scene, also featured on both doors. Executed with gold and copper powder, it represents mounds with rocks and traditional pagoda-style houses, some perched on stilts. Three figures in traditional costumes illustrate this bucolic scene: a couple seated at a table (likely for a tea ceremony) and a lady with a parasol on the opposite bank, who appears to be addressing them.
The inside of the doors is decorated with two mounds, devoid of figures but featuring a phoenix in flight.
The sides depict a palace garden, with balustrades on stilts from which emerge shrubs in which pairs of pheasants perch.
The eleven drawers are richly decorated (with gold, silver, and copper dust) with lakeside landscapes and mythological scenes (a child on a Qilin, an immortal, a lady with a fan, etc.).
Beautiful ornamentation of finely gilded, chased, engraved, and openwork copper, including a lock, spandrels, and hinges.
The cabinet, England, reign of Queen Anne, circa 1700-1715.
The decoration is inspired by engravings from John Stalker and George Parker's treatise "A Treatise of Japanning and Varnishing," published in England in 1688.
The base is made of giltwood with four cabriole legs ending in scrolls, a 19th-century English piece.
Dimensions:
Cabinet: Height: 90.5 cm; Width: 113 cm; Depth: 51 cm
Base: Height: 70 cm; Width: 117.5 cm Depth: 51.5 cm
Total height: 160 cm
Similar examples:
- Chastleton House, Oxfordshire
- Christie's London sale, October 31, 2023, lot 160, £50,400
- A secretary desk with red lacquer decoration from the same workshop is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Inv. No. 2014.186a, b)
Our opinion:
The exquisite craftsmanship and refinement of our cabinet perfectly represent the technical mastery achieved by English varnishers from the late 17th century onward.
It also illustrates Queen Anne's preference for vermilion lacquer, which was particularly difficult to produce. While small cabinets were commissioned from China, larger models and library desks were made directly in London.
The decoration of our cabinet is largely inspired by the engravings in John Stalker and George Parker's "A Treatise of Japanning and Varnishing," published in England in 1688. This treatise lists the latest technical innovations for imitating lacquer and also includes a collection of engravings that many British varnishers would use in the following decades.
The constant pursuit of improvement in English varnishing led to the creation, from the beginning of the 17th century, of a varnish that rivaled the finest Chinese productions. Only the type of furniture, the wood used, the nature of the ironwork and the iconography of the engravings allow us to differentiate them from oriental productions.
