Cabinet on stand
Category
Furniture
Date
Unknown
Materials
Solid satinwood, oak, brass, walnut and deal
Place of origin
Indonesia
Order this imageCollection
Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire
NT 514404
Summary
A solid satinwood and brass mounted cabinet on an associated walnut stand, the cabinet Dutch colonial, possibly Indonesia, late 17th Century, the stand English, mid 18th Century. The pair of panelled cupboard doors with ten brass hinges and with brass corner brackets and an elaborate lock plate, opening to reveal an arrangement of ten variously sized drawers, two fitted with locks and with drop brass handles with star brackets. Carrying handles to the sides. The walnut stand raised on cabriole legs and pad feet.
Full description
The shape of the mounts on the cabinet is derived from those found on Japanese and Chinese lacquer cabinets. The original function of this cabinet is not entirely clear, but it may have been intended to contain documents or a collection of small precious objects. This type of cabinet is very similar to designs made in Holland. Usually, as in this case, the only difference is the use of tropical hard wood. It is however very unusual to find an example made almost entirely of solid satinwood, even the drawer lining are thus, the back board of the cabinet curiously is an oak panel. By the early seventeenth century, the market for exotic objects brought back from China and Japan began to grow rapidly. Both The East India Company, founded in 1599, and the Dutch East India Company, founded in 1602, were largely responsible for the trade of Chinese and Japanese objects in England. During this period, many shipments laden with oriental wares and copies of oriental wares would have departed from the Far East to satisfy the demands of the English and Continental Europeans. For related examples see: Domestic Interiors at the Cape and in Batavia 1602-1795, Den Haag (2002) Pl. 22 Gemeente museum Den Haag, Cat. No.0540200 Jan Veenendaal - 'Furniture from Indonesia, Sri Lanka and India during the Dutch period'(1985) pl.72 Dr. V. I. Van de Wall 'Het Holllandsche Koloniale Barokmeubel' Antwerp 1939 (James Weedon Oct. 2017)
Provenance
Bequeathed to the National Trust by Huttleston Rogers Broughton, 1st Lord Fairhaven (1896-1966) with the house and the rest of the contents.
References
Malan, Antonia - Domestic Interiors at the Cape and in Batavia 1602-1795, Den Haag (2002) Veenendaal, Jan - 'Furniture from Indonesia, Sri Lanka and India during the Dutch period'(1985)