A Regency Parcel-Gilt Polychrome Japanned and Penwork Cabinet, Circa 1815

Christie's London, The Legend of Dick Turpin Part I, lot 300 (£78,000)

Kentshire, New York

This extraordinary cabinet is arguably one of the most elaborate and accomplished examples of penwork, a technique of applying India ink decoration to a japanned surface with a quill pen, and in this case enhancing large areas with polychrome pigments. The practice became popular during the Regency era, a time when the traditional 18th century influences of antiquity and chinoiserie amalgamated with a newly developed interest in ornamentation derived from the art of the Indian subcontinent. These design motifs were then disseminated through print sources, notably Rudolph Ackermann's Repository of Arts published in London between 1809 and 1828.

This lot appears to be part a small group of at least two other cabinets that presumably emanate from the same workshop, all decorated with similar polychrome vignettes of Asian figures and nearly identical monochrome floral borders simulating ivory inlay on Anglo-Indian furniture. One is a two-door cabinet on stand that reputedly bears a pencil inscription on the reverse of the central inner door Made by George Wimpear in the employ of Mr Loudon, December 6th 1821, and the interior drawer fronts are painted with views of the Bristol region. This first appeared on the market at Sotheby's London, 22 November 1985, lot 136, and was subsequently sold again twice, most recently at Christie's London, 27 November 2003, lot 55. A second cabinet on stand of virtually identical form and decoration but smaller in size, originally intended as a shell cabinet with manuscript paper labels on some of the drawer linings for various types of snail species, was previously in a Canadian private collection and is currently with Carlton Hobbs, New York. The Wimpear cabinet is illustrated in C. Gilbert, Pictorial Dictionary of Marked London Furniture 1700-1840, Leeds 1996, fig. 578, p. 308.