Dutch, 1620-50, carved oak and turned ebony

to Cupboard, 3 old

Stand for cupboard, Dutch, 1620-50

Two-stage oak cupboard with carved leafy strapwork panels and ebony inlay ornaments.

Design
The design of the cupboard is architectural, with a deep, moulded entablature (cornice, carved frieze of scrolling acanthus centred on a vase of fruit, and carved architrave) above upper and lower storeys (each with two hinged doors) which are separated by a carved architrave or waist moulding (part of the upper section and extending round the sides), the whole on a base moulding supported by ebonised ball feet (replaced) at the front and plain bracket feet at the back. The decorated front is made up of series of 6 fluted Doric and Ionic pilasters (with various ornaments in ebony (identified visually by Furniture Conservation 2013): fluting infill lower down, pierced scrolling strapwork onlay, split balusters), and panelled doors with vertical fluting and mitred mouldings surrounding a central field of leafy strapwork carved in low relief, with ebony buttons and 'cushion' ornament. On the upper section the central pilaster is a fixed muntin. On the lower section the central pilaster is attached to the right hand door.

On the lower storey a mid-height horizontal band of leaf carving in two sections run between the panels and below them runs a single long horizontal band. The sides of the cupboard continue the architectural design, but with plain frieze, panels and scratch-moulded muntins. All four doors are hung on metal pin hinges (modern replacements.) The two upper section doors are each fitted with an iron lock and a carved wooden lion mask escutcheon. The lower pair of doors is fitted with a similar iron lock and two escutcheons (one a dummy). All three iron locks appear, from fixing holes and tannic acid staining, to be original, though with some added screw fixings. On the upper left lock a strip of oak has been added behind the lock which is slightly too large for its position (but nonetheless apparently original).

The upper stage contains two small cupboards separated by a full-depth partition held between battens front and back. On both sides of the upper storey, resting on a glued strips is a shallow shelf (23 cm deep) running along the back, 33cm above the floor. The lower storey is a single, large compartment with a single, central, full-width shelf.

Construction
Frame and panel construction with the principal mouldings mitred and nailed, the oak carving worked in the solid, the oak capitals and ebony ornaments glued. The tops and backs of both sections and the shelf in each section is made up using nailed tongue and groove boards in a mix of sizes - those on the backs mostly wider (24-7cm), those for the shelves about 11-19cm. A mix of single and double pegging has been used for the motice and tenon joints, and a mix of radial and tangential cut oak has been used. The construction is sound and neat without being flashy.

Bought £74. 1s. 4d from Messrs. Martin Klop & Co., Hooge Nieuwstraat 32, The Hague, Holland. RF 5202/07
A.B. Skinner and W.W. Watts (23/11/1907): "When at the Hague recently, we called on Mr Klop..and saw the following, which in our opinion would be valuable additions to the collections here:- a) Oak Cabinet. From Friesland, pointed out to us by Mr Lewis F. Day, whose notes are appended. This specimen, which according to the owner has never been painted or stained, has a fine carved frieze along the top, and part of the decoration consists of ebony jewels and fluting. There are repairs in places, but not more than would be expected in a piece of furniture which has been in use. The black ball feet are new, but are quite in keeping. There is no example of this type of cabinet in the Museum, but we found very similar cabinets in the Museums at Cologne & Frankfurt. 17th century; H.6ft. : W.4ft. Price 900 florins"

This kind of cupboard was widely made between 1620-1640 in Holland and the Northern Netherlands and Northern parts of Germany. These cupboards were made in many different workshops. They were sometimes known as ‘vaaskasten’ after their distinctive carved frieze wtih a central vase of flowers. This example is typical in most respects but omits the base section with drawers that are often seen, and makes greater use above and below the doors of horizontal bands of low relief carved ornament.

The strapwork ornament probably based on designs by Paul Vredeman de Vries. The frieze design derives broadly from 16th century designs such as those of Virgil Solis (1514-1562), eg V&A EO41-22718, E.515-1911, E.2529-1913.

History of the type
(See Loek van Aalst and Annigje Hofstede, Noord- Nederlandse meubelen van renaissance tot vroege barok 1550-1670 (Houten : Hes & De Graaf Publishers, 2011.), p. 63 ff.)
Two door cupboards are first found in the northern Netherlands c.1550 (slightly later than their appearance in Flanders), the earliest examples usually built-in, with free-standing versions developing later. Two types of the earliest surviving four door cupboards date from c.1600: (a) with full-height stiles and glued-on geometrical mouldings; (b) on a solid plinth without drawers. After 1602 (and the founding of the VOC) inlay decoration in tropical woods becomes more prevalent. From 1650 their decoration is more baroque, with greater use of tropical woods.

The four door Holland type of cupboard evolved from German and Flemish precedents of about 1500, and the two door type. They were demountable, using simple pegs to secure the sections together, allowing for easier transport from the studio to the client. Larger models use a separate plinth with drawers and make greater use of marquetry and ebony, while smaller examples make greater use of carved oak decoration. One of the doors is fitted with a stile to ensure a unified façade with a visible gap. The sides are mostly 6 panel with moulded borders, and they usually stand on 2 (or 3 for the larger examples) round ‘squashed bun’ front feet (very often replaced) that were originally no wider than the front stiles. The doors are hung on pin hinges.

Three type of Holland four-door cupboard are known, 1610-60 (occasionally dated):
1) the simplest type, with pilasters (as 860-1907), usually with Ionic/Doric capitals, and standing on a small, profiled plinth, and with an overhanging cornice with multiple mouldings. Earlier examples being simpler and without ebony ‘kusen’ (pillow) ornaments (characteristic of c1620-30), buttons, split turnings, filler for the fluting. The frieze has low relief carving of acanthus and vines, usually with a central vase of fruit (and sometimes birds, occasionally a head). Carved decoration is in the solid (where replicas tend to use applied carving), but the mouldings are glued. Some examples are plain or with some intarsia. The sides usually plain, without profiles, or frieze carving, but elaborate examples may be more richly ornamented. Cheaper versions have thinner doors (2.5 to 3cm thick) whereas type 2 cupboards have doors c5cm thick. Most have one drawer in the plinth. Lion consoles in the plinth are found over a long period from about 1630, symbolising courage and power.
2) With columns
3) With statues

At the start of the 17th century in the Netherlands, a large cupboard, known as a kast, was a relatively new phenomenon in northern Europe where chests had served for domestic storage, and where such a large piece would dominate the relatively small rooms of even wealthy householders. Some were well over 2m tall. Smaller, and simpler examples like this one were probably made in large quantities over half a century as the type became established as a traditional piece of furniture, and stood in almost every house of moderate status. Small pieces of ebony inlay or applied split turnings contrast with the pale oak, adding definition to the architectural design.

The four doors provide good access to the cupboard interior which consists of two upper compartments, each one 40 x 50cm, presumably for smaller linens such as napkins and pillowcases, and two lower shelves, each one 40 x 105cm, probably for larger linens such as bedsheets.

Inventory evidence suggests that a kast often stood in the voorhuis (front-house) which was entered from the street and served as a workshop or office – an imposing, and classically ornamented symbol of the occupants’ dignity. During the 17th century a kast became, along with a richly furnished bed, the most important piece of furniture at home. Conspicuous carvings, usually provided by a sculptor, not carved by the furniture maker, were often added on the front and frieze with columns (as opposed to the relatively severe front with pilasters used here). A kast might be bought on the occasion of a wedding and were mainly used to store folded linens and clothing – costly articles that often formed part of the dowry. Pieter de Hooch’s painting, Interior with women beside a linen press, 1663, depicts a large kast from (or into) which a woman and a maid hand linen. An emblem in Jan Luiken, Het Leerzaam Huisraad (Amsterdam, 1711) shows a mistress and maid at an open press stacked with neatly folded linens.

With the growing taste for imported Asian ceramics and their European imitations, an imposing cupboard was also commonly used for the display of an array of conspicuous ceramic vessels, stood on top. Such an arrangements are depicted in Portrait of an Enkhuizen family c. 1635, anon., Enkhuizen, Zuiderzeemuseum; and Family at dinner table, attributed to Cornelis de Man, c.1665-70 (J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles).

Additional literature:

-Loek van Aalst and Annigje Hofstede, Noord- Nederlandse meubelen van renaissance tot vroege barok 1550-1670 (Houten : Hes & De Graaf Publishers, 2011.)
-Reinier Baarsen, Furniture in Holland’s Golden Age . (Amsterdam Rijksmuseum, 2007). -Th.H.Lunsingh Scheurleer, Catalogus van meubelen en betimmeringen, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, 1952.

Owen Feltham, an Englishman, who visited Holland in the middle of the seventeenth century, described the houses as "… the best eye-beauties of their Country. For cost and sight, they far exceed our English, but they want their magnificence. Their lining is yet more rich than their outside; not in hangings, but pictures, which even the poorest are there furnisht with. Not a cobbler but has his toyes for ornament. Were the knacks of all their homes set together, there would not be such another Bartholomew- Faire in Europe .. ."( R. W. Symonds. ‘Dutch Home and Its Furniture’. The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, Vol. 81, No. 477 (Dec., 1942), pp. 300-304)

At the start of the 17th century in the Netherlands, a large cupboard, known as a kast, was a relatively new phenomenon in northern Europe where chests had served for domestic storage, and where such a large piece would dominate the relatively small rooms of even wealthy householders. Some were well over 2m tall. Examples like this one were probably made in large quantities over half a century as the type became established as a traditional piece of furniture, and stood in almost every house of moderate status. Small pieces of ebony inlay or applied split turnings contrast with the pale oak, adding definition to the architectural design.

Inventory evidence suggests that a kast often stood in the voorhuis (front-house) which was entered from the street and served as a workshop or office – an imposing, and classically ornamented symbol of the occupants’ dignity. A kast might be bought on the occasion of a wedding and was likely to be used to store linen and clothing – costly articles that often formed part of the dowry.

860:1-1907