Bureau cabinet
Category
Furniture
Date
circa 1730
Materials
Lacquer, giltwood, brass handles
Measurements
227 x 110 x 68 cm
Place of origin
Jingdezhen
Order this imageCollection
Scotney Castle, Kent
NT 790937
Caption
A large lacquered cabinet which has been owned by the Hussey family since the 18th century. It is full of curiosities which belonged to members of the Hussey family that lived at Scotney Castle since 1748. It is mentioned in the 1903 inventory where it was sited in the Drawing Room, which is now the Study.
Summary
A black lacquer and Chinoiserie decorated bureau cabinet with shrine, Chinese, circa 1730. The upper section with elaborate moulded and double-arched pediment, above a pair of doors opening to reveal an elaborately fitted interior with a stepped shrine and balconies, gilt columns and lattice screens, the steps and upper parts are drawers, below this are five larger drawers in two rows, all decorated with flowers, birds and scenery, enclosed by a pair of doors, the inside surfaces plain, the outside depicting Chinese pagoda landscape scenes with figures which are mirrored on the desk lid, the lower desk section with a sloping lid and enclosing a fitted interior of multiple pigeonholes and drawers around a central open compartment, with an unusual arrangement of nine further drawers below, each with elaborate handle, standing on a plinth with flattened bracket feet.
Full description
From the 1670s, increasing numbers of lacquered objects were imported from Asia. Sometimes undecorated furniture was sent out to be lacquered in China. Chinese merchants and artisans became increasingly familiar with Western tastes and by about 1730 were able to supply furniture such as bureau-cabinets and folding tables in Western forms. Many pieces made in China for export to Europe were decorated in black and gold lacquer, imitating the more expensive and rarer Japanese lacquer.This is a fine example of the Chinese type with distinctive elaborate cresting and the interior fitted as a shrine. See a related example with a similarly distinctive pediment in the V&A Museum Collection (Museum No. W.28-1935) and another in the National Trust collections at Snowshill Manor (NT 1331882).
Provenance
Part of the Hussey collection. The contents were bequeathed to the National Trust in 2006 by Mrs. Elizabeth Hussey. The 1903 inventory records 'Handsome Japanese Cabinet with Bureau beautifully fitted', adding that it has 'Been in Mr Hussey's family over 100 years'.