Rare Japanese Export Lacquer Chinoiserie Table, circa 1740

A fine and rare English chinoiserie-decorated occasional table, circa 1820. The subject matter is extremely rare in that it depicts Europeans in exotic oriental robes. One is seated with an opium pipe; displayed in a polychrome romantic tropical environment with pavilions, rockwork, trellising, foliage, palms, with a peacock and HoHo bird at their feet. Note the very rare and charming depiction of these men with beards. In over 65 years we have never encountered a japanned table showing this European feature. Raised on a gilded, reeded, partly-ebonised column rising from a stylised platform base and spreading, gilded animal...

A large English chinoiserie japanned tôle (tole) tray table. Regency period, early 19th century, circa 1810. The gilt-heightened exotic landscape set on a Venetian-red ground. Depicting a watery seascape amongst pagodas, pavilions, rockwork, trees, and a courtly lady beside a bridge, all raised on its apparently original open-fretted Oriental stand...

An outstanding and rare, 17th-century Japanese mulberrywood gilt-lacquer cabinet raised on a later stand. This fine and exceptional two-door, gilt-heightened cabinet - reputedly in mountain mulberry wood...

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 Regency period polychrome papier-mâché chinoiserie tray on a bespoke ebonised stand. Ca 1810. In excellent and original condition showing an exotic r...

An extremely rare dressing table mirror of the William and Mary period, ca 1690. English, late 17th century, japanned and painted dressing table...

This tray is English Victorian, well-gilt with Chinoiserie decoration of pavilions, bridges, fishermen in an extensive mountainous landscape, within a shaped and gilt border. We do n...

Charming English chinoiserie style faux bamboo cocktail table featuring a paper-maché lacquered tray top decorated with intricate Asian motifs. The tray has parcel gilt pagodas and landscapes over a dramatic red ground. The lacquer has a desirable aged craquelure fine webbing on the finish. The later constructed faux bamboo green...

Chinoiserie lacquered wood tray on a bamboo stand, the shaped rectangular tray decorated with chinoiserie scenes, on a canted rectangular faux bamboo stand. 22.5 inches in height, 2...

Pair of antique Japanese Lacquer Trays, Taisho period (1912-1926) beautifully decorated with a miniature landscape of pea pods on the vine and a gold cricket set...

Italian chinoiserie tray table. Vintage Italian hand painted tole tray on custom folding painted metal stand in rich aubergine, gilt and silver gil...

Black lacquered and gilt wood japanned tray table with floral motives Raised on a later black and gilt painted based raised on bamboo-form sabre legs joined by an X-form stretcher.