Carved and lacquered wooden bureau. Netherlands. First

Carved and lacquered wooden bureau. Netherlands. First half of the 18th century.
Bombe bureau with lion claw feet and extendible lid. The exterior is beautifully lacquered, embellishing the desk, in the fashion of the time, following oriental models. The interior has fruit wood marquetry decoration of foliage and floral motifs.
Historically, the taste for oriental style began in the 15th century, when Portuguese merchants began buying furniture and objects made in Japan. This trade grew in the 17th century, when the Dutch East India Company (VOC) gained a monopoly on trade with Japan. The Dutch were the only westerners allowed in Japan, their base being on the artificial island of Deshima in the Bay of Nagasaki. They bought boxes, plates and bowls lacquered in the Japanese decorative style, but they also traded with lacquer workers in Nagasaki and Kyoto, from whom they commissioned more occidental objects such as dressing tables, chests of drawers, tables and chairs etc.
Towards the end of the 17th century, the growing cost of Japanese lacquer work meant that in Holland, France, England and Germany magnificent artisans emerged, who created marvellous lacquerware, imitating the oriental style.
At the same time, China came into fashion in the late 17th century. The French and British began trading with China from 1700, followed by the Dutch VOC in 1728. As well as tea, silks and porcelain, lacquerware was very much in demand. They mostly traded in small articles such as tea caddies, cups, trays and frames. Trade in lacquered furniture was far less common, due to its price, and these pieces were always ordered by noble or moneyed families. For example, the Chinese lacquered furniture bought by the Danish captains of the Asiatic Company in the 1730s is kept partially at the Royal Palace in Copenhagen.
109,5 x 137 x 58 cm.