A Pair of George III Black Japanned and Chinoiserie cabinets on Stands Circa 1760

each in two parts, the upper section with a pierced, geometric fretwork cornice centered by a pagoda above two glazed and mullioned doors opening to a green velvet-lined interior fitted for adjustable shelves above two short drawers, the stand with two short drawers raised on chamfered square legs headed by pierced fretwork molding at the corners.

Possibly Thomas Assheton Smith (1725-1744), Ashley Hall, Cheshire

Thence by descent to Mrs. Assheton Smith (1908)

Thence possibly by descent through the Duff-Assheton-Smiths to The Collection of the late Sir Michael Duff, Bt., Wayrol Hall, Nr. Caernarfon, Gwynedd, North Wales

Sold by his executors, Sotheby’s, London, March 8, 1985, lot 115

Percy Macquoid, A History of English Furniture – The Age of Satinwood, 1908, p. 25, fig 14, an illustration of 1, from The Collection of Mrs. Assheton Smith (described as one of a set of three)

Ralph Edwards, The Dictionary of English Furniture, 1953, vol. I, p. 184, fig. 41

Sotheby’s, Art at Auction 1984-1985, 1985, p. 251

In the Chinese manner, these japanned china cases were designed to display various Chinese porcelain objects including utensils decorated in blue on a white ground, and figures of various Chinese mythological deities in blanc de chine porcelain. A number of designs for this form of cabinet are included in mid 18^th century cabinet-makers’ pattern books, although they appear to have become unfashionable after 1770. These include Thomas Chippendale’s The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director, first published in 1754, William Ince and John Mayhew’s The Universal System of Household Furniture, 1762, and A Society of Upholsterers Genteel Household Furniture in the Present Taste, c. 1765. All are designed in the Chinese taste, some with pagoda-form tops or, as in the present cabinets, with pierced and blind-fret ornament to the cornices and stands. Many of the cases were intended to be japanned, Thomas Chippendale noting that his design shown on plate CXXXVI of the 3^rd edition of The Director, 1763, was ‘Very proper for a lady’s Dressing Room. It may be made of any soft wood, and japanned any colour’. Another designed by Ince and Mayhew, plate XLVIII, is described as ‘A China Case for Japanning, the inside all of Looking-glass, in that manner it has been executed, and has a very elegant effect’.