ALLEMAGNE (?) Début du XVIIIe siècle

ALLEMAGNE (?) Début du XVIIIe siècle

IMPORTANT CABINET Japanese lacquer cabinet with adventurous
decoration European leg
H. 168 cm, W. 105 cm, D. 50 cm
This Japanese lacquer cabinet forms a secretary. The flap reveals nine drawers and four secrets, in the centre a door revealing two drawers. The whole in aventurine lacquer. The front of the flap is decorated with cockerels, bamboo in black, gold and polychrome lacquer. The sides are decorated with foliage.
Since the Renaissance, free-standing cabinets were considered as prestigious pieces of furniture. They were intended to be very decorative and contained many drawers to store valuables and curiosities. Japanese lacquerware first arrived in Europe in the second half of the 16th century.
Never before had Europeans seen such pieces and, therefore, lacquers were imported in large quantities throughout the seventeenth century. The princes and aristocrats of Europe were avid and enthusiastic collectors of lacquerware, so most European mansions and palaces displayed fine examples of it in the salons and state rooms.
Japanese export lacquers appeared at the end of the 16th century and differed from domestic lacquers.
They were made in a hybrid style that combined European forms with Japanese, Chinese or Korean decorative techniques. The better quality export lacquers were produced in Kyoto, the former imperial capital. They were then shipped to Deshima, a small island in the port of Nagasaki, to be shipped by Dutch merchants. Since the 17th century the
Dutch were the only Europeans allowed to trade with Japan, which they did through the Dutch East India Company
.
Very often the Japanese lacquer exports were designed to match the Western interiors and way of life. This piece of furniture, which adopts the cabinet type with internal drawers, has no equivalent in the strictly Japanese furniture typology and thus proves its European destination. To make them more practical legs were frequently added in the West, as seems to be the case with our cabinet. Automatically translated by DeepL. To see the original version, click here.