Description
A fine small antique English William & Mary period walnut and marquetry chest on stand, of lovely faded rich golden colour.
The chest with two short and three long drawers. The stand with one long drawer, all drawers and carcass lined in fruitwood and pine.
Raised on ‘cup and cover’ legs united by serpentine flat stretchers faced with matching ‘seaweed’ marquetry panels.
Brass mounts and escutcheons aparently original.
In superb condition overall.
width 3’2″
depth 2′
height 4’3″
BHA940
See a William & Mary walnut and seaweed marquetry cabinet on stand attributed to Gerrit Jensen ca. 1690 sold @ £62,500, lot 20, Christies, 14th November 2013.
Compare the arabesque marquetry and same chevron lines to the top of a centre table lot 441 sold by Christies, New York, 20 October 2011 @ $USD 43,750. ‘Possibly by Gerrit Jensen ca. 1690-1700.’
Further reading:
The best examples of this type of marquetry are generally associated with ‘Cabinet maker in ordinary to the Crown’, Gerrit Jensen (1680 d.1715), who created fine furniture for Charles II, William & Mary, and Queen Anne. During this period the links between Continental and English cabinet makers were very close, with many highly skilled and fashionable cabinet makers settling in England and greatly influencing the English cabinet making trade of the period. This English walnut chest on stand is a reflection of this association.
Ref:
Adam Bowett English Furniture 1660-1714, from Charles II to Queen Anne, Woodbridge, 2002.
Adriana Turpin ‘Floral Marquetry in late 17th century England’.
R. Baarsen, Dutch furniture 1600-1800. Ryksmuseum, Amsterdam 1993. ‘A unique cabinet decorated with Japanese lacquer panels veneered with borders of ‘Seaweed Marquetry’.
See an arabesque cabinet on stand sold by Brightwells of Leominster March 19th 2010 for £35,000 to the trade. Formerly the property of the well known dealer Edward Nowell of Wells.
Messrs. Woolley & Wallis of Salisbury sold a closely related walnut chest but without stand from the Nolte Collection on the 7th September 2007, lot 7 @ £22,000.
See a London writing desk ca. 1690 by Gerrit Jensen, cabinet-maker to William and Mary (V&A museum, London) illustr. p.84 in The History of Furniture, Intro by Sir Francis Watson, Orbis Pub. Ltd.
For very similar treatment of stretchers see Ralph Edwards ‘Shorter Dictionary of English Furniture’ p. 580 ill. 10. Ca. 1690.
Ralph Edwards illustrates a similar chest (without stand) on p. 201 of ‘The Shorter Dictionary of English Furniture’. The chest is dated 1700 and was the property of the Countess of Strafford.
