A HIGHLY IMPORTANT MASTERPIECE, Chinese export, circa 1760
Height: 8 ft 4½ in; 255 cm
Width: 4 ft 9 in; 145 cm
Depth: 1 ft 8 in; 51 cm
Width: 4 ft 9 in; 145 cm
Depth: 1 ft 8 in; 51 cm
4425751
£100,000 +
Further images
A George III period Chinese export huang huali and ebony cabinet. Note: The cabinet retains its twenty-six original reverse painted mirror plates and ornate brass handles and escutcheons. The top...
A George III period Chinese export huang huali and ebony cabinet.
Note: The cabinet retains its twenty-six original reverse painted mirror plates and ornate brass handles and escutcheons. The top section is fitted with three adjustable shelves. The cupboards in the base are each fitted with a single shelf. The plinth base is a restoration. Two of the small mirror plates each have a minor crack.
One might be excused for thinking at first glance that this bookcase is English, but on closer inspection it soon becomes clear that it was made in China. The timber is the rare and highly regarded huang huali, a hardwood not used in England in the 18th century, and prized in China for its mellow golden colour, its fine grain and its aromatic scent. This timber has been used for the entire construction, with lesser parts of the tree such as the sap wood used for non-structural parts like drawer sides and back boards. The joinery of the piece is also very characteristically Chinese, with through tenons with pegs being used for the door frames, and dovetails in the drawers that are not in the English style.
The hardware - handles, hinges, escutcheons and locks - was all imported from England, probably prior to work starting on making the bookcase. The twenty-six mirror plates would also have originated in England. Packed in straw in wooden crates, and travelling for months on rough seas, it is remarkable that these fragile pieces of delicately thin glass, the most striking part of this exceptional cabinet, survived the outward voyage. The use of reverse painted mirror panels in a bookcase is extremely rare. Only one other example is known, a larger bookcase made of solid ebony and formerly in the collection of Ann and Gordon Getty.
The striking similarity of design and composition of the painted glass panels in both bookcases is extraordinary and leaves no doubt that both pieces originate from the same source.
The panels for this bookcase, just like those for the ebony example, were specially commissioned and designed for their specific location within the doors, very probably at a premium cost. This bespoke production contrasts with most other mirror paintings, which were copied over and over again at speed to meet high demand.
From planning through to the finished item, this bookcase would have taken several years to produce before being, if destined for Europe, handed over to the supercargo, the person in charge of a ship’s cargo, whose duties included buying and selling of stock on behalf of the cargo’s owner.
During the 18th century, trade restrictions imposed by China allowed very limited access to a select few countries, with Canton the only port open to Europeans and subsequently also Americans. This highly lucrative trade with China was organised for Britain by the East India Company.
Sir William Chambers (1722–1796), perhaps best known as architectural adviser to King George III, was born in Gothenberg, Sweden, to Scottish parents. He was educated in England before starting a mercantile career and joining the Swedish East India Company. He made three separate voyages to Asia between 1740 and 1749. The first (1740–1742) was to Bengal, India, and the second (departing 1743) and third (1748–1749) were both to China. On the voyages to China, Chambers acted as an assistant supercargo and was responsible for managing and selling the cargo on arrival, as well as buying and receiving goods for the return voyage. As the assistant supercargo he was familiar with the Siou-Sin Saang workshop.
It is plausible to speculate that Chambers may have been involved with the design and the making of both the bookcase and the mirror panels. Not only was he in a position to manage the designs for the bookcase, with its unusual lozenge glazing bars, but also he is known to have met the Chinese artist Siou-Sin Saang and employed him to draw images of Chinese costume on glass panels. These images later formed the basis of Chambers’s 1757 publication on Chinese design, and some of them are repeated on the glass panels of the bookcase.
Provenance
Private collection, London, England;
Ronald Phillips Ltd., London, England;
Private collection, New York, USA.
Literature
William Chambers, Designs of Chinese Buildings, Furniture, Dresses, Machines and Utensils, 1757, fig. 1, pl. xv.
Thierry Audric, Chinese Reverse Glass Painting 1720–1820: An Artistic Meeting Between China and the West, 2020, pp. 120–25.
Illustrated:
‘Around Grosvenor House’, Country Life, 7 June 2001, p. 170.
Ronald Phillips Ltd., ‘Antique English Furniture’, catalogue, 2001, pp. 1–2.
