Offered by Franck Baptiste Paris
Exceptional cabinet with coromandel lacquer decoration.
It opens with two flaps revealing a sublime interior with ten drawers on four rows.
All the faces have a “Kuan Caï” type lacquer, with deeply recessed reserves filled with polychrome pigments engraved and incised, using a technique similar to champlevé.
The two exterior doors represent the women’s harem within the imperial palace.
The wives are richly dressed in multi-colored kimonos; they are gathered in small groups of six in the palace gardens or under an open pagoda and are busy with several activities such as dancing, playing music, picking flowers.
The interior of the cabinet has a rich decoration of pierced rocks, mounds and branches where birds flutter, including a pair of quails on the ground pecking, or even multi-coloured birds in flight or perched.
The back of the doors has a decoration of pine, bamboo and magnolia branches made in gold on a black background.
Beautiful ornamentation in finely chiseled and engraved copper including hinges, spandrels and a large keyhole decorated with stylised phoenix heads.
The cabinet rests on a base made of softwood gilded with leaf.
Rectangular in shape, it has four snail feet topped with putti treated as atlantes who support the cabinet on their heads.
The feet are connected by acanthus scrolls and garlands of openwork flowers which constitute the crosspieces.
The facade is centred on two entwined putti.
Lacquer panels from a large screen made in China during the reign of Emperor Kangxi (1654-1722) around 1680-1700 and a small screen in Canton lacquer around 1700 for the back of the leaves.
The base and cabinet specially designed in England at the end of the reign of Queen Anne (1665-1715) to receive the precious lacquer panels.
Dimensions:
Total height: 164 cm; Width: 114 cm; Depth: 57 cm
Cabinet: Height: 86 cm; Width: 97 cm Depth: 49 cm
Our opinion:
The cabinet we are presenting is one of the most beautiful coromandel lacquer cabinets known.
It was made by cutting a large Kangxi screen decorated with palace scenes on the front with a back decorated with local Chinese fauna and flora.
These lacquer panels were worth huge sums under the old regime and were exclusively the preserve of the great nobility of blood who wished to highlight them on more European furniture.
Our piece of furniture was therefore veneered with these precious panels and built in the manner of a travel cabinet but it is ceremonial furniture that was presented on a gilded wooden base specially made to highlight these rare lacquers.
Placed in the living room, it could be presented closed or open in order to dazzle guests and demonstrate the wealth and culture of its owner.
In addition to the abundance of the decoration and the richness of the gilded wooden base, the greatest quality of our cabinet comes from the quality of its lacquer decoration which is deeply incised and finely engraved and where the originally shimmering colors have gradually given way to soft pastel tones with inimitable charms.
