cabinet;
stand
- Museum number
- 1977,0406.1
- Description
-
Drop-fronted cabinet, with 9 drawers and an arch-shaped central locker. Namban piece. Decorated with panels of flowers, trees, birds, insects, animals, houses and boats. Made of black lacquered wood with gold makie and mother-of-pearl inlay; European copper fittings decorated with peonies line-engraved on punched nanako ground. With later stand.
- Production date
- 1620s-1640s
- Dimensions
-
Height: 57 centimetres
-
Width: 85.50 centimetres
-
Depth: 44 centimetres
- Curator's comments
-
Smith et al 1990
This sort of cabinet was made for export to Europe and continued to be shipped by the Dutch East India Company until late in the seventeenth century. The almost baroque decoration was developed in deference to European taste and is Japanese only in detail. As one would expect, the lacquer hidden by the drop front is brilliantly preserved, giving some idea of the glamour which these pieces exerted before the European japanning industry grew up in imitation.
The cabinet has drawers and an arched central locker; the metal fittings are decorated with peonies line-engraved on a punched 'nanako' ground.
-
Ayers, Impey & Mallet 1990
This is a drop-fronted cabinet, with drawers, decorated overall with dense designs of birds, flowers, trees and long-armed monkeys and with borders of geometric patterns. These designs conform to the basic florid 'Namban' style also found on religious objects ordered originally by the Portuguese in the late 16th century, and continued on secular exports through them and the Dutch from 1610 onwards. Cabinets arrived in the Netherlands in that year, in London in 1614, and continued to be imported throughout the century. Frequently found in English country houses, they were sometimes used to stand porcelain on. This piece originally had its own legs (probably added in Europe), but now stands on a replacement table.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1977
- Department
- Asia
- Registration number
- 1977,0406.1
