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Lot 630
A GEORGE I SCARLET-JAPANNED AND GILT-GESSO BUREAU CABINET
ATTRIBUTED TO THE MASTER OF THE ROYAL PORTUGUESE CABINETS, CIRCA 1720
Closed23 October 2022
Price Realised
USD 100,800
More Information
Specialist note
THE MASTER OF THE ROYAL PORTUGUESE CABINETS
This distinctive cabinet, with its narrow proportions and ornate gilded cresting was probably made for export. Its rich gilt gesso cresting in particular relates it to a group of similar cabinets that all share certain idiosyncrasies which suggest a common cabinet-maker; there are several possible candidates. In the 1720s, a drawing of a bureau-cabinet was included amongst designs made by Russian craftsmen, who had been sent to London for training by Tsar Peter the Great (N. I. Guseva, 'Fedor Martynov: Russian Master Cabinet Maker', Furniture History, 1994, p. 95, no. 3). It has been suggested that their training may have taken place with the Strand cabinet-maker Peter Miller, who, in 1724, is recorded as executing a walnut bureau-cabinet of this form for export to Spain (Adam Bowett, Geffrye Museum Symposium, January 2002 and C. Gilbert, The Pictorial Dictionary of Marked London Furniture 1700-1840, Leeds, 1996, figs. 646 & 647). A spectacular cabinet, executed entirely in gilt gesso (sold Christie's, London, 4 July 2002, lot 100), made as one of a pair for export to Portugal, also displayed several cabinet-making details pointing to the work of Peter Miller. Other leading candidates for the authorship of these splendid cabinets might be the St John's Square, Clerkenwell cabinet and chair-maker Giles Grendey who was commissioned to supply a large suite of red and gilt-japanned furniture for the Dukes of Infantado (which includes lot 568 in this sale), or possibly James Moore and John Gumley, who were also established after 1714 in partnership together at 'the upper Part of the New Exchange in the Strand'.
This distinctive cabinet, with its narrow proportions and ornate gilded cresting was probably made for export. Its rich gilt gesso cresting in particular relates it to a group of similar cabinets that all share certain idiosyncrasies which suggest a common cabinet-maker; there are several possible candidates. In the 1720s, a drawing of a bureau-cabinet was included amongst designs made by Russian craftsmen, who had been sent to London for training by Tsar Peter the Great (N. I. Guseva, 'Fedor Martynov: Russian Master Cabinet Maker', Furniture History, 1994, p. 95, no. 3). It has been suggested that their training may have taken place with the Strand cabinet-maker Peter Miller, who, in 1724, is recorded as executing a walnut bureau-cabinet of this form for export to Spain (Adam Bowett, Geffrye Museum Symposium, January 2002 and C. Gilbert, The Pictorial Dictionary of Marked London Furniture 1700-1840, Leeds, 1996, figs. 646 & 647). A spectacular cabinet, executed entirely in gilt gesso (sold Christie's, London, 4 July 2002, lot 100), made as one of a pair for export to Portugal, also displayed several cabinet-making details pointing to the work of Peter Miller. Other leading candidates for the authorship of these splendid cabinets might be the St John's Square, Clerkenwell cabinet and chair-maker Giles Grendey who was commissioned to supply a large suite of red and gilt-japanned furniture for the Dukes of Infantado (which includes lot 568 in this sale), or possibly James Moore and John Gumley, who were also established after 1714 in partnership together at 'the upper Part of the New Exchange in the Strand'.