A QUEEN ANNE SCARLET, GILT AND POLYCHROME-JAPANNED WRITING TABLE/BACHELOR'S CHEST

This small writing-table/chest is extremely rare, not only in its form but in the preserved state of its decoration. A clear comparison can be made with the one sold from the collections at Houghton Hall, Norfolk (‘Works of Art from Houghton’, Christie’s, London, 8 December 1994, lot 114, sold for £188,500). The Houghton piece came to the Cholmondeley family collections through the connoisseur Sir Philip Sassoon, Bt., at Trent Park, Hertfordshire where it was recorded in 1939. Sir Philip descended from Jewish European ‘royalty’ on both sides of the family with the Sassoons, as well as the Rothschilds (his mother was granddaughter of James de Rothschild who headed the Paris banking branch of the family). Sir Philip’s sister, Sybil, married the 5th Marquess of Cholmondeley in 1913.

The present example, with its hinged top and carry-handles, demonstrates the fashion for moveable multi-purpose furniture introduced to bedroom-apartments in the early 18th century, while its exotic decoration imitates highly prized lacquer from the Far East. Such lacquered objects had become status symbols for Royalty and their inner circle. An inventory taken at the time of Queen Mary’s death includes a number of `india japan’ furnishings in the Queen’s bedchamber at Kensington Palace where she displayed her large collection of Oriental porcelain. And the rich ‘Red japan’ or ‘Dragons-Blood’ palette was particularly sought after. A related scarlet-japanned bureau-cabinet supplied in the early 18th century for Erddig in Wales is attributed to the ‘very eminent cabinetmaker’ John Belchier (d. 1755), and is illustrated in P. Macquoid and R. Edwards, The Dictionary of English Furniture, London, 1924-7, rev. edn., vol. I, p. 135, fig. 24.