Japanned cabinet, English or Dutch, late 17th century, two doors enclosing drawers, polychrome decoration of vases and flowers on a black ground

Cabinet. Black japanned wood with flowers naturalistically painted in colours. The front is composed of two doors enclosing seven small drawers arranged in four tiers - x2, x3, x2, x4 (square drawers flanking two small drawers, one above the other), which are recessed about 7cm behind the doors. The doors (front and back) and the sides painted with large vases of flowers (the vases themselves painted with chinese style flowers), the drawer fronts with small floral sprays (each one different). The upper outer corners of the outside of the doors are painted with sprays. The outer edge of the cabinet and the front edges of the dustboards are painted in gold, and the edges of the doors (where this is worn, a greeny colour is visible), except for the touching edges.

The inside of the drawers is apparently painted in an orange/gold scheme, possibly imitating aventurine lacquer. Black paint along the front edges of the dust boards.

Each door is attached to the frame by five openwork brass hinges held with six flat-headed brass pins; at the corners are L-shaped engraved brass mounts (on 3 or 4 pins). The large escuthcheon in the centre consists of a large, unpierced oval engraved, flanked on either side by elaborations of the hinge motif. On the front edge (centre) of the bottom board is a engraved brass strip. The left hand door is fitted at top and bottom with brass bolts. Drawer handles are ring-shaped, in silver, held by a nut on the thread, and are apparently original.

Construction
The cabinet of softwood, dovetailed and veneered on the show surfaces and drawer fronts. The softwood drawers are dovetailed front and back (and numbered in pencil on the backs). The bottoms, grained front to back, are held in a narrow rebate all round, probably with glue (some pins are also visible).

Condition
Much of the subtle shading of the painted decoration is lost, and numerous small losses are visible (especially where the paint was mixed with a lot of white).

Bottom left hand drawer handle base missing. Fourth hinge on the left door (from the top) has lost one half. On the right side, the second and fourth side hinge plates are missing. Various mount pins are missing. The brass has been thickly varnished.

Bequeathed by Mrs A. F. M. Cardinale Topham

Bequeathed by Mrs A.F.M. Cardinale Topham, 26 Colehearne Court, London SW5 (RF 48/2814)
On acquisition regarded as 'English, early 18th century'

In 1976 the cabinet was displayed on a carved and ebonised table frame (V&A 294A-1874).

Exhibited at the Holburn Museum, Bath, 27 October 2012 to 6 January 2013, in Secret Splendour. The Hidden World of Baroque Cabinets, cat. no. 6

Two cabinets with closely similar decoration were, with a third cabinet, part of the collection of Geoffrey Hart, published by R.W. Symonds in 'The City of Westminster and its Furniture Makers. Illustrated by pieces from the collections of Mr Geoffrey Hart', The Connoisseur May 1935, vol. XCV, pp. 3-9.

One of these cabinets was sold by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art at Sotheby's New York on 21 October 2000, lot 294. This was the one illustrated in plate I of Symond's article, although it was there shown with the incorrect stand (the correct stand was shown with the cabinet illustrated in plate III. This mistake had been rectified by the time the cabinet was illustrted in R.W.P. Luff in 'Oriental Lacquer and English Japan. Some Cabinets from the Collection of Mr. J. Paul Getty at Sutton Place, Surrey', in The Antique Collector (no date given), pp. 257-261, fig. 1. The Sotheby's commentary records that that cabinet belongs to a group of at least five similarly decorated cabinets that must be from the same workshop in London or Amsterdam, including a suite of furniture designed for a bedroom, comprising a cushion-framed mirror, a table, and a pair of torchéres. It is suggested that these were supplied to Hopetoun House, near Edinburgh, possibly by John Gilbaud, who worked at the sign of The Crown and the Anchor, Long Acre. His trade card records that he made 'all manner of Cabbinet Work and Japan Cabbinets'. He is known to have supplied two overmantel mirrors to Hopetoun in 1703 but the connection is otherwise uncertain. Sotheby also records that one of the other cabinets in the group also has a possible Scottish collection, with the reputed provenance of the Dukes of Buccleuch (sold Christie's, New York, 13 April 2000, lot 212). A further cabinet was recorded in the gothic library at Arbury Hall, Warwickshire. See C. Hussey, English Country Houses. Mid-Georgian, 1760-1800. London: Country Life: 1956, p. 44, fig. 70.

Comparable cabinets
Cabinet on carved and gilded stand (cabinet 82.5 x 93.9 x 49.5) J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles inv. 78.DA.117, in Gillian Wilson and Catherine Hess: Summary catalogue of European Decorative Arts in the J. Paul Getty Museum. (Los Angeles, 2001), no. 388, included in the V&A exhibition 'The Orange and the Rose' Oct 1964-Jan 1965, no. 220
Cabinet on carved, silvered stand, HWD: 162.5 x 112 x 57cm. Offered at Christies, New York, 22/10/1988 lot 178, formerly owned by Mrs G Hart
Cabinet on stand, formerly in the collection of the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry, sold Christies New York, 26/10/1985 lot 159, illustrated in G. Beard and J. Goodison, English Furniture 1500-1840, 1987, p.38
Cabinet from the collection of J.L. Tillotson, with painting attributed to Van Huysum, illustrated in F.Lenygon, Furniture in England, 1920, p. 196, fig. 300
Pair of cabinets, veneered in pear or lime wood, and painted, the drawers oak, attrib. English, illustrated in R.W.Symonds 'The City of Westminster and its furniture makers - illustrated with pieces from the collection of Mr Geoffrey Hart', Connoisseur, 1937, p.3
Cabinet on stand attrib. English, illustrated in R.W.Symonds 'The English Japanner's Trade', Connoisseur, 1937, pp.235, 237
Cabinet, sold Sothebys New York 21/10/2000, lot 294
Cabinet from the Leverhulme Sale, Sothebys, 26-28/6/2001, lot 220
Cabinet in the library at Arbury Hall (see Christopher Hussey, English Country Houses: Mid-Georgian 1760-1800, 1956, p.44, fig. 70
Cabinet on stand, attrib. Dutch(?) late 17th century; Sothebys New York 7/3/2007 lot 25, the Estate of Christian, Lady Hesketh
Cabinet on stand c1680, illustrated in dining room, in an article on Benjamin Steinitz, L'Objet d'Art, October 2009, p.79
Cabinet on carved and silvered stand, attrib. English c.1675-95, illustrated in Adam Bowett, English Furniture 1660-1714, (Woodbridge, 2002), plate 5:32, p.163
Cabinet (171 x 117 x 57cm) on carved stand, formerly at Easton Neston (The Antique Collector, vol. 22, no. 5, Oct. 1951 pp. 191-200), with Salomon Stodel (2011)
Pair of cabinets (each 103 x 93 x 43 cm), offered for sale by Sotheby's Paris, 22 and 23 September 2010, lot 114, from the Patiño Collection.

See also the suite of table, mirror and stands with carved and japanned with floral decoration c.1670-75 supplied to Hopetoun House, near Edinburgh, possibly by John Guilbaud, in Adam Bowett, English Furniture 1660-1714, (Woodbridge, 2002), p15

W.50:1-1948