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Lot Essay
This serpentine lak commode, with its constructional wooden pegs to the drawer linings and backboards, is of a typical form executed in Holland between about 1730-50. The carcase, however, contains a high proportion of pine to oak and this characteristic construction would point to the commode almost certainly being made by the witwerkers guild - cabinet-makers who specialised in making carcases in 'white wood' for painted or japanned decoration. The 'lacquer' decoration - mounted warriors brandishing swirling banners and drawers decorated sans traverse with flowering prunus, rose and bamboo branches punctuated with songbirds - is applied onto a veneered ground with mitred corners visible on each drawer. There are many precedents for European 'japanners' decorating directly onto a veneered surface to allow a smooth ground and although in the 1992 Carlton Hobbs catalogue it was suggested that the lacquer decoration was added in the late 18th or early 19th century, the commode appears to have been constructed with a painted or japanned decorative scheme in mind; moreover the stylistic treatment of the decoration is directly comparable to Chinese famille verte porcelain of the second quarter of the 18th century. Although it is conceivable, therefore, that it could have been applied at a slightly later date in the 18th century, the decoration could equally well be original. This hypothesis is underlined by the fact that usually the decoration of 'old pieces' in a new style was done out of expediency and for reasons of economy. However, the exquisite and lavish decoration of this commode indicates that the creation did not involve half-measures.
A paint analysis conducted by University College, London, confirms this hypothesis: 'a great many samples (were taken) from the top, the proper left hand side, and the top drawer. The samples all turned out identical, and what one sees today on the commode is entirely the original decoration. The fact that the drawers and the sides look so different is because they are less worn. Unfortunately there is nothing in the pigments to give a clue to the date. Prussian blue [1704] was used for the blue flowers and blue details of costumes. Red ochre was used for reds and pinks. Lead white was used for the white pigment. Charcoal black was used in the ground layers. The only slightly helpful thing was the charcoal black which was hand-ground, and therefore points to the decoration probably being no later than mid 19th century. The technique involved a ground built up carefully in five separate layers of grey, pink and brown oil paint, followed by a brownish lacquer tinted with red iron oxide, and applied in three layers. The gilding, silvering and the painted decoration was applied on top, and then sealed by a thick coat of varnish. The technique is quite unlike what one expects to see on English lacquered pieces, where you tend to get coloured layers interleafed with glaze layers'.
The delicate designs of the floral borders of this commode have parallels in Chinese Export lacquer furniture as early as the 1730s, as can be seen for instance upon the writing cabinets made in Canton and brought back to Fredensborg Castle, Denmark in 1738 (J. Clemmensen, 'Some Furniture Made in China in the English Style, Exported from Canton to Denmark 1735, 1737 and 1738', Furniture History Society Journal, 1985, p. 175, figs. 7). However, the concept of decorating the drawers continuously sans traverse behind the borders, as well as the combination of stylised geometric motifs, is perhaps a more sophisticated refinement first introduced in Chinese screens in the late Kangxi period 1664-1772. The inclusion of stylised geometric motifs in the borders was still very much alive in 1815 in Frederick Crace's whimsical designs for the decorations of the Brighton Pavilion (J. Morley, The Royal Pavillion, Brighton, London, 1984, fig.166).
To quote the Carlton Hobbs 1992 catalogue entry, 'The painting itself is remarkable for the vividness with which the figures progress through the landscape, for the assuredness of the compositions and their framing decoration and for the jewel-like colours of the flowers. The finely modelled and highly individual faces, refreshingly free from caricature, rather stand out from the rest of the painting and are the work of a special face painter. Their three-dimensional modelling in light and shade presents an interesting contrast to the more authentically oriental linear depiction otherwise present. The only close parallel to the present commode is a kneehole desk in a private collection in Gloucestershire, the carcase of which dates from about the same time. The decoration is so similar that it may be from the same hand, and quite possibly formed part of the same commission'.
DAISY FELLOWES
Editor of Harper's Bazaar and dubbed by Vogue the best dressed woman in the world, Daisy Fellowes epitomised good taste between the thirties and her death in 1962. The daughter of the duc Decazes, she married firstly Prince Jean de Broglie and secondly in 1919 the Hon. Reginald Fellowes (1884-1953), second son of the second Baron de Ramsey. She was also American by descent, being the granddaughter of Isaac Singer. Among her various homes in London, Paris, Geneva, as well as a country house in England, the most famous was her villa at Cap-Martin, near Monaco, known as Les Zoraides. She entertained lavishly both here and on her 190 foot yacht Sister Anne which she moored in Monaco and lent to various distinguished friends such as the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and Winston Churchill.
A paint analysis conducted by University College, London, confirms this hypothesis: 'a great many samples (were taken) from the top, the proper left hand side, and the top drawer. The samples all turned out identical, and what one sees today on the commode is entirely the original decoration. The fact that the drawers and the sides look so different is because they are less worn. Unfortunately there is nothing in the pigments to give a clue to the date. Prussian blue [1704] was used for the blue flowers and blue details of costumes. Red ochre was used for reds and pinks. Lead white was used for the white pigment. Charcoal black was used in the ground layers. The only slightly helpful thing was the charcoal black which was hand-ground, and therefore points to the decoration probably being no later than mid 19th century. The technique involved a ground built up carefully in five separate layers of grey, pink and brown oil paint, followed by a brownish lacquer tinted with red iron oxide, and applied in three layers. The gilding, silvering and the painted decoration was applied on top, and then sealed by a thick coat of varnish. The technique is quite unlike what one expects to see on English lacquered pieces, where you tend to get coloured layers interleafed with glaze layers'.
The delicate designs of the floral borders of this commode have parallels in Chinese Export lacquer furniture as early as the 1730s, as can be seen for instance upon the writing cabinets made in Canton and brought back to Fredensborg Castle, Denmark in 1738 (J. Clemmensen, 'Some Furniture Made in China in the English Style, Exported from Canton to Denmark 1735, 1737 and 1738', Furniture History Society Journal, 1985, p. 175, figs. 7). However, the concept of decorating the drawers continuously sans traverse behind the borders, as well as the combination of stylised geometric motifs, is perhaps a more sophisticated refinement first introduced in Chinese screens in the late Kangxi period 1664-1772. The inclusion of stylised geometric motifs in the borders was still very much alive in 1815 in Frederick Crace's whimsical designs for the decorations of the Brighton Pavilion (J. Morley, The Royal Pavillion, Brighton, London, 1984, fig.166).
To quote the Carlton Hobbs 1992 catalogue entry, 'The painting itself is remarkable for the vividness with which the figures progress through the landscape, for the assuredness of the compositions and their framing decoration and for the jewel-like colours of the flowers. The finely modelled and highly individual faces, refreshingly free from caricature, rather stand out from the rest of the painting and are the work of a special face painter. Their three-dimensional modelling in light and shade presents an interesting contrast to the more authentically oriental linear depiction otherwise present. The only close parallel to the present commode is a kneehole desk in a private collection in Gloucestershire, the carcase of which dates from about the same time. The decoration is so similar that it may be from the same hand, and quite possibly formed part of the same commission'.
DAISY FELLOWES
Editor of Harper's Bazaar and dubbed by Vogue the best dressed woman in the world, Daisy Fellowes epitomised good taste between the thirties and her death in 1962. The daughter of the duc Decazes, she married firstly Prince Jean de Broglie and secondly in 1919 the Hon. Reginald Fellowes (1884-1953), second son of the second Baron de Ramsey. She was also American by descent, being the granddaughter of Isaac Singer. Among her various homes in London, Paris, Geneva, as well as a country house in England, the most famous was her villa at Cap-Martin, near Monaco, known as Les Zoraides. She entertained lavishly both here and on her 190 foot yacht Sister Anne which she moored in Monaco and lent to various distinguished friends such as the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and Winston Churchill.