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A Queen Anne Scarlet Japanned Bachelors Chest

england , circa 1700-1710

SOLD

An exceptionally rare and highly important Queen Anne japanned bachelors chest.  Decorated overall with chinoiserie designs on a scarlet red ground, the rectangular hinged top with a silk velvet-lined interior and concealed compartments, above an arched apron and three central drawers, flanked by doors each enclosing five further japanned drawers, the folding top supported by hinged gate legs, the sides similarly decorated and with bold brass carrying handles, on bun feet.
The japanning of outstanding quality.

Stock number

O03.32
Height: 29¹/₈ in (74 cm)
Width: 37 in (94 cm)
Depth: 14⁵/₈ in (37 cm)
This exceptional bachelors chest is extraordinarily rare.  One other example with red japanned decoration was part of the magnificent collection of the Marquess of Cholmondeley from Houghton Hall, Norfolk (sold Christie’s, 8 December 1994, lot 144) and had previously been in the collection of Sir Philip Sassoon, Bt., Trent Park, Hertfordshire.  Documented in a photograph of the Blue Room (South Drawing Room) at Trent Park in 1939, this cabinet was subsequently sold by Mallett & Son (Antiques) Ltd. Of New Bond Street.  More recently it was offered by Apter Fredericks Ltd. and illustrated in their catalogue Important English Furniture – II.  

A similar walnut bachelors chest and writing table from the collection of Irwin Untermyer is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (Y. Hackenbroch, English Furniture in the Irwin Untermyer Collection, London, 1958, pl. 278, fig. 320). 
Comparative Literature
A. Bowett, English Furniture from Charles II to Queen Anne 1660-1714, p. 216, pl. 7:42.
C. Hussey, ‘Japanned Furniture at Trent Park’, Country Life, 18 October 1930, p. 500, fig. 9.
C. Hussey, ‘Trent Park, Hertfordshire - II’, Country Life, 17 January 1931, p. 70, fig. 8.
‘Trent Park’, The Antique Collector, December 1938, p. 348.
Dr D. G. Doree, Trent Park: A Short History to 1939, 1974, repr. 1990.
L. Synge, Mallett Millennium, p. 73, fig. 70.
Mallett & Son Antiques Ltd., Annual Catalogue 1995, pp. 30-33 (and on the cover).
Loan Exhibition of English Decorative Arts at Lansdowne House, 17-28 February 1928.
The Age of Walnut, 25 Park Lane, 1932, fig. 44.
C. Hussey, English Country Houses - Early Georgian 1715 - 1760, p. 82, fig. 114 showing the comparable example at Houghton

 
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