Chinese Coromandel and Lacquer Cabinet, Shanghai, China

Chinese lacquer, carved and gilt decorated cabinet. Gold gilt decorates the body of the dynamic red cabinet, deep relief carved panel insets and black lacquer central panels with fin...

19th century German burr elm Biedermeier cabinet. Two sections, both fitted with shelves and an old white washed interior. Original hardware and l...

19th century German Biedermeier mahogany cabinet. Classic lines with good small proportions. French polished finish. The door in the des...

Late 18th century Georgian oak livery cabinet, circa 1780, George III period. Livery is composed of two pieces. A cabinet above and bin plus drawers be...

20th century American neoclassical Art Moderne cabinet by Lorin Jackson for Grosfeld House, circa 1940. A china cabinet with four glass shelves abo...

19th century exotic Dutch colonial hexagonal cellarette. Elaborately shaped and stepped on five sides, flat across the back. Ornate pierced brass escutcheon and brass nail heads. Bra...

A delightful Chinese coromandel brown lacquer cabinet on stand, made for the export market, early to mid-19th century, China, presented on an early 20th century custom fitted stand. The gem of a cabinet is fitted with doors and drawers, and decorated on all sides. The top, back and sides with lacquer painted scenes of birds and flowers. The front of the cabinet featuring a pair of stunning coromandel doors carved with a shanshui (mountain and water) landscape scene, complete with temples and pagodas, boats and bridges, and figures, all set against craggy mountains shrouded in clouds and rippling water. The cabinet mounted with brass hinges and lock plates (key included) and a pair of carrying handles. Opening the doors reveals eleven wondrous black lacquer drawers...

This cabinet is made of green lacquered wood with gilt bronze and chinese life sceenes. The inside part is made of eglomised mirrors. This is a French work, circa 1940.

A early 19th century qing dynasty cabinet boasting a deep red patina from the Shanxi Province, circa. 1820-1830. The façade showcases two doors fitted with a traditional round medal...

A rare Chinese polychrome Coromandel or ‘Bantam Ware’ lacquer casket or table cabinet, Kangxi period (1661-1722). Circa 1700. This fine small Chinese export lacquer fitted casket is decorated overall with polychrome incised decoration. Opening with two doors revealing a red interior with fitted drawers and a hinged rising top. In superb, almost entirely original condition, retaining its vivid colours and fine details with courtiers in a pavilion and on horseback amidst foliage and formal palace gardens. The small bun-type feet are historical replacements. Interestingly bearing an antique-script inventory #25 and A I on the base. Nb. Bantamwork or Coromandel lacquer, not to be confused with ‘japanning’, is the term applied to decoration that is cut into a layer of gesso and then lacquered in colours. Much of the lacquer was transhipped from China through Coromandel in India, or the Dutch colony Batavia, Java. References: Coromandel lacquer or ‘Bantamwork’, with its characteristic incised decoration, was made in Henan province in northern China from the latter part of the Ming dynasty and exported to Europe from the end of the 17th century through the East India Company’s and VOC trading posts on the Coromandel coast of India. The technique consisted in overlaying a base of wood with a series of increasingly fine white clays and fibrous grasses. Over this surface, lacquer was applied and polished before the design was incised and the hollowed out portions filled with colour and gilt and finished with a clear lacquer to protect it. Although John Stalker and George Parker used the term ‘Bantamwork’, the contemporary layman usually called it ‘cutt-work’, ‘cutt Japan’ or ‘hollow burnt Japan’. Stalker and Parker discuss two types of ‘Bantam-work’ – flat and incised – in their Treatise on Japanning and Varnishing of 1688, noting that it ‘was done in colorus mix’t with a gum water’. They also considered that it was ‘almost obsolete, and out of fashion, out of use and neglected….’ although admitted that ‘it was very pretty, and some are more fond of it, and prefer it to the other…’. This casket/ table cabinet now on offer is related to one formerly with Malletts and illustrated in A. Bowett, 'English Furniture 1660-1714: From Charles II to Queen Anne', Woodbridge, 2002, p. 150, plates 5:9. A much larger closely-related Bantam work coffer with rising lid was offered in the ‘Asian Art in Cologne’ sale lot 114 on 11th December 2021. Estimated @ £60,000 – £79,000. Mme de Pompadour, mistress to King Louis XV from 1745 to 1751, was an avid collector and admirer of Chinese Coromandel or Bantam work and was probably largely responsible for the very high prices recorded for such pieces, sometimes 10 times or more the price of ordinary furniture of equivalent quality. A Coromandel cabinet...

A stunning and pair of Chinese early 19th century cabinets features a red lacquer front contrasted by black lacquer sides. Each cabinet showcases a pair of doors that open thanks to ...

The essence of traditional Chinese furniture is fully expressed in the simplicity and graceful presence of this 18th century two-door cabinet. Crafted of southern elmwood with tradit...