Description
A rare chinoiserie standing double corner cabinet, or cupboard.
English, George I-period, ca 1720.
Often erroneously referred to as lacquer work, this is japanned. Beautifully decorated with idyllic scenes of rockwork, pagodas, people, trees, birds, water, with bridges and a boat.
This is a lovely and very useful addition to a room – where corners can present furnishing dilemmas – and this is a chic antique drinks cabinet. These have always been very hard to find, as opposed to the more usual Georgian hanging corner cupboards. It is even harder to find one that has survived over 300 years in almost totally original state, in lovely condition, as in this example.
The drawer is simulated. Retaining its apparently original brasswork, hinges, locks and two keys.
The fashion icon Coco Chanel furnished her exquisite Paris apartments largely in the European chinoiserie taste.
Literature:
Herbert Cescinsky, English Furniture Of The Eighteenth Century, George Routledge & Sons (1911) vol. I, p. 215, fig 224. Dated 1725-1730.
References:
The development of English black japanning 1620-1820, Spring 2006 Issue 52, V & A Musem, London.
John Stalker, A Treatise of Japanning and Varnishing (1688).
