A CHINESE EXPORT PAKTONG-MOUNTED PADOUK AND ROSEWOOD DRESSING-TABLE, THIRD QUARTER 18TH CENTURY

A CHINESE EXPORT PAKTONG-MOUNTED PADOUK AND ROSEWOOD DRESSING-TABLE
THIRD QUARTER 18TH CENTURY
With hinged twin-flap square top enclosing a partially-fitted interior, above seven various-sized camphor-lined drawers around a gothic niche, the sides with carrying-handles, on moulded feet and later wooden castors
36 in. (91 cm.) high; 19 ½ in. (49.5 cm.) wide; 19 ¼ in. (49 cm.) deep, closed

Provenance

Acquired from Spink, London.

CHIEVELEY HOUSE, BERKSHIRE: THE PROPERTY OF MR. AND MRS. NICHOLAS STANLEY (LOTS 1 - 99)

The following group is a fascinating collection of hardwood furniture of Canton manufacture executed to a Western pattern. Such furniture may have been made to special order, perhaps for a member of the British East India Company posted in China or Macau (C. Crossman, The Decorative Arts of the China Trade, Woodbridge, 1997, p. 234). These pieces were undoubtedly copied from either an English model, which had made its way to the Orient or from published designs, available to Canton craftsmen. Export furniture in general of this date is relatively rare as supported by the East India Company’s ledgers, which list only a few dozen pieces per year.
Among these pieces, tables and chairs are few; Crossman suggests that for the Chinese trader case furniture such as bureaux, desks and bookcases used for storage and ‘general usefulness’ were deemed more practical than tables and chairs, with their limited, albeit important, functionality (ibid., p. 232).