A pair of George II scarlet and gilt-japanned bureau-cabinets circa 1730

each with a domed cresting above a conformingly shaped bevelled mirrored door enclosing an arrangement of eleven drawers around a cupboard door enclosing three further drawers, with a shelf above, the sloping falls with further fitted interiors above a frieze drawer and a folding slide, with three graduated drawers below within a bombé carcase and bracket feet on moulded blocks, minor replacements and restorations

Acquired from Mallett and Son, Antiques Ltd., London.

Mallett Advertisement, Country Life, March 19, 1970, p. 674.

For further information on this Lot, please contact the English Furniture Department on 00 44 (0) 207 293-5470.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

The fashion in England for decorative objects from the far East became firmly established after the restoration of the monarchy in 1660. Dutch mechants who had been granted exclusive rights with China in 1637 were the main suppliers of such wares until 1699, when the Chinese Emperor K`ang Hsi finally opened the port of Canton to the English East India Company. However, the supercargo of the ship Macclesfield reported soon afterwards that `ye many troubles & vexations we have met with from these subtile [sic] Chinese- whose principles allow them to cheat, and their days practise therein have made them dextrous at it`, indicating that trading would still be difficult. Direct commerce with Japan was even more restricted, the Portuguese having been evicted in 1638 and the Dutch merely being allowed a small and troublesome trading post on the island of Dyushambe close to Nagasaki. The East India Company did attempt to open trade with Japan, but reported that `since our King [Charles II] was married with the daughter of Portugal, their enemy, they could not admit  us to have any trade, and for no other reason`. The most popular articles in this luxury trade, were silks, porcelains and lacquered wares, including cabinets, coffers and screens. However the standard of these pieces was often considered to be of inferior quality to that produced in Europe and there are records of cabinet makers travelling to the East to construct furniture for it to be lacquered there. ( cf. H.Honour, Chinoiserie: The Vision of Cathay, 1961 and G.Z. Thomas, Richer than Spices, 1965.). These commercial difficulties gave rise to a thriving trade in England for wares that were decorated to simulate oriental lacquer. The methods used by the English exponents of this art were fully explained in a volume published in 1688 by John Stalker and George Parker entitled A Treatise of Japanning and Varnishing  which was `a compleat Discovery of those Arts' (John Stalker & George Parker, A Treatise of Japaning and Varnishing, Oxford, 1688, reprinted by A. Tiranti, London, 1960) . This volume also included `Above an Hundred distinct patterns for Japan-work in Imitation of the Indians (sic) for Tables, Stands, Frames, Cabinets, Boxes etc.` The publication is obviously directed to both the professional and the amateur, the `recipes' being extremely clear.

A number of leading English cabinet-makers of the late 17th and early 18th centuries are recorded as supplying cabinet pieces decorated with japanning, which remained fashionable for much of the 18th century. Amongst these  was Gerrit Jensen (1680-1715), who was possibly of Dutch or Flemish origin. He was appointed Cabinet maker in ordinary to William and Mary in 1689 and had a number of important aristocratic clients connected to the Court. These included the 1st Duke of Devonshire at Chatsworth, for whom he supplied `glass for the door of the great chamber and for japanning the closet ', the latter being incised or bantam work, and the 5th Earl of Salisbury, Hatfield House, to whom he supplied a mirror in a japan frame with a folding table underneath which is also in japan.' Other makers recorded include Elizabeth Harrison of London who supplied a `Japan cabinet & a black carved frame' costing £52 in 1695 for Petworth House, and in 1704 a `Jappan scrutoire' for Lord Bristol at a cost of £50, James Moore (c.1670-1726) whose account for `Works done for her Grace ye Dutches of Bucclough' includes a `Buro made of Japan and Locks', and John Gumley (1691-1727 who supplied Paul Foley in 1726 with amongst other items ` A neet Swinging Glass in a blue japanned frame £1 4s'.  One of the most spectacular recorded commissions for red and gilt japanned furniture in the late 1730s was the suite of cabinet and seat furniture supplied by the London cabinet-maker Giles Grendey (1693-1780) to the Duke of Infantado for his castle at Lazcano in northern Spain. Although no documents survive regarding its actual purchase, a number of pieces retain Grendey's printed labels confirming his authorship. The suite included at least sixty two chairs, pairs of day beds, candle stands, mirrors, a card table, a tray top table and at least two pairs of cabinets, many of which were purchased by Adolph Loewi of Venice in 1930, and are now in various private and museum collections in England and the United States. The extent of his business both for export and in England is suggested by the existing number of labeled pieces by him which allows his house style to be defined. An indication of his status is also shown in newspaper accounts of a fire which spread from an adjacent workshop to his premises on August 4, 1731. Grendey was described as being 'the greatest loser, among the stock destroyed being "an easy Chair of such rich and curious Workmanship, that he had refus'd 500 guineas for it, bring intended, 'tis said to be purchas'd by a Person of Quality who design'd it as a Present to a German Prince' and furniture to the value of £1,000, which he "had pack'd for Exportation against the next Morning".

John Belchier was another practitioner of the art of japanned furniture, who produced cabinets in a very similar vein to Grendey, trading from the near by St Paul's Churchyard. HIs recorded furniture of this character includes a bureau-cabinet with provenance from the Pleydell-Bouverie family, sold Sotheby's London, 30 November 2001, lot 160.

There are few surviving cabinets in the form of the present examples and accordingly there is scant evidence to point to a specific maker.  The bombé configuration of the bottom section is particular rare in English cabinet-work and may indicate the influence of German furniture makers. A Dresden bureau cabinet featuring a bombé outline and similar apron is illustrated in Hans Huth, Lacquer of The West, 1971, pls. 194-195. Another distinctive aspect of the present cabinets is the folding slide beneath each frieze drawer which possibly provides another clue as to the elusive identity of the maker. 

Additional comparisons can be made with the profile and interior of the upper section of a walnut and japanned cabinet, sold Sotheby's London, 7 April 1995, lot 246, bearing the trade label for `Hugh Granger at the Carved Angell in Aldermanbury` (see Christopher Gilbert, Pictorial Dictionary of Marked London Furniture, 1996, p.235, pls. 422-3). Further related examples can be seen illustrated in Lanto Synge, Mallett Millennium, 1999 edition, pp.78-79 and again Lanto Synge Malletts Great English Furniture,1991 edition, p.63.  A very similar bureau cabinet is illustrated in Ralph Edwards and Percy Macquoid, The Dictionary of English Furniture, rev. ed. 3 vols., Vol. I, p.135, fig.26, which is given a provenance from Mrs David Gubbay and another related  black japanned cabinet sold Christie`s New York,  The Prescott Collection, January 31st 1981,  lot 360.