Bureau on stand
Category
Furniture
Date
1730 - 1750
Materials
Lacquered wood, paint and brass
Measurements
174 cm (H); 80.5 cm (W); 50 cm (D)
Place of origin
Jingdezhen
Order this imageCollection
Powis Castle and Garden, Powys
NT 1180799.1
Summary
One of a pair of black and gilt chinoiserie decorated lacquer bureaux on later stands, the bureau Chinese Export, mid 18th century. The stands probably English, mid 18th century. Each with a raised panelled screen, with an arcaded frame and surmounted by a shaped pediment held by moulded square section supports with finials. The bureau with a fall enclosing a fitted interior of drawers and compartments and raised on a later stand with cabriole legs and pad feet. The whole decorated with mountainous landscape scenes, flowers and exotic birds.
Full description
These mid 18th century bureau-dressing-table, usually with a fitted mirror, belong to a type popularly known as 'Union Suites'. One such bureau featured in John Carter's 1788 watercolour of the antiquarian Horace Walpole's parlour at Strawberry Hill (A. Chalcraft and J. Viscardi, Strawberry Hill, 2007, p. 29). The Powis bureaux are fitted instead with a chinoiserie panel which maybe purely for decorative purposes. These maybe the 'Two japan Dressing Boxes' in the 1775 inventory. (James Weedon, February 2019)
Provenance
Recorded in 1944 Inventory as ‘2, 2ft 6in bureau of Japanese lac fall front and interior fittings 2 drawers gilt brass escutcheons handles and mounts sliding panel at back gilt terminals and cabriole supports' in Tapestry Drawing Room (Blue Drawing Room). Accepted by HM Treasury on 21st March, 1963 in lieu of tax and conveyed to National Trust ownership on 29th November 1963
References
Archer, Mildred Treasures from India [1987]., no. 194 Chalcraft, A. & Viscardi J. 'Strawberry Hill' 2007, p.29