Charles II Cabinets

17th century English oak cupboard. The cupboard has a dark stained oak patina with a raised panel design on each side. The cupboard doors ...

A fine, and rare, very closely-matched pair of late-17th century oyster walnut chests on stands. English, Charles II period, ca 1685. Both with f...

This exceptional 17th-century chest / cabinet has one long working drawer, and one deep drawer, with cupboards retaining internal shelving below. All faced with elaborate, mitred, geometric mouldings, applied split balusters, carved corbels, roundels and engraved mother-of-pearl and bone panels. Some panels apparently in ebony. Dentil cornice to the frieze. Bun feet replaced following the original design. Great colour, old surfaces and overall condition is excellent. It conveniently divides into two sections. Circa 1660. Provenance: Lisgoole Abbey, N. Ireland. Literature: R. W. Symonds, 'The Present State of Old English Furniture', Duckworth, London (1921) fig. 7, dated 1673. Vis a very similar 17th c chest. Percy Macquoid RI, 'A History Of English Furniture - The Age Of Oak', Lawrence & Bullen, London (1904-08) p. 76, figs. 140 & 141, for two similar chests of ''well considered proportions and details’’. Figs. 203 - 210 exhibit further similarities in design, and MacQuoid states that “the fashion for these chests must have been great, as many varieties of them… followed rapidly upon one another in date” [sic] pp. 97-99. Viz p. 77, fig. 141 (Oak chest with drawers). The top opens in a long drawer, below is a very deep drawer, panelled in strong projection, the bevels of which are of so-called zebra or snake-wood. The lower portion of the chest, opening in two doors... [sic]. Nb. The chest illustrated in Macquoid is of oak, but in 1680 it was probably to match some other furniture, painted black and lacquered in what was then termed ''The Indian Taste'', so very fashionable for a time. The bone and pearl inlay is very cleverly imitated in the lacquer-work. Ralph Edwards CBE FSA, 'The Shorter Dictionary of English Furniture', Hamlyn, London (Fourth Impression 1972) “The next stage in the evolution (of the chest) was delayed until c. 1650, when a hybrid form, half cabinet and half chest...

Charles II walnut and mulberry marquetry cabinet on giltwood stand, c. 1650-1670. Giltwood cresting and stand appear to be from a few decades later. The form of furniture now described as a cabinet developed across Spain and France in the 16th Century. In architecture, a cabinet is a small private room for the housing or display of precious objects, hence the term could be aptly applied to the small, portable pieces of furniture made for the carriage and display of valuable items and able to stand upon a table, trestle stand...

Antique Charles II Georgian Japanned carved lacquer China cabinet on base. Item features ornate lacquer decorated case, solid carved walnut stretcher...

English Jacobean oak chest on later stand, chest fitted with four graduated drawers, on stand with baluster supports with block stretchers.