The Enduring Appeal Of Japanese Lacquer In The West
The fascination with Chinoiserie (an umbrella term which covers Chinese and Japanese-influenced pieces) and oriental art in the west can be traced back to the late 15th and 16th centuries when the first examples of pieces made in China began to arrive via the silk road in the courts of Europe. These pieces caused a sensation at the time and were incredibly highly prized, affordable only to Kings, Queens and merchants with the largest fortunes of the period.
A Ming dynasty blue and white porcelain bowl with English silver gilt mounts in the Percival David collection in the BM is an intriguing example of this early trade. The mounts are hallmarked and are the earliest known on any piece of blue and white porcelain in England, showing that the bowl was in the country by 1569.
The major imports from this trade consisted of porcelain, spices and the like but soon lacquer in the form of screens and cabinets began to become an important and particularly valuable part of the trade. Lacquer furniture was produced both in China and Japan. It is generally accepted that the finest lacquer was produced in Japan but it was much easier for lacquer to be imported from China. Most of the major European powers had some sort of trading links with China in the period through their various East India companies but Japan remained unapologetically opposed to large scale trade with the west for much of the period following the banning of Christianity in the country in 1614 and the subsequent crackdown on foreign missionaries who often arrived on trading ships.
Early examples of Japanese wares in the west had often been ordered via the Portuguese trading company but in the early 17th century it was the Dutch VOC which took over the vast majority of what remained of the trade via its trading posts in Batavia. Acquiring a fine example of Japanese lacquer was therefore extremely costly and time consuming, the pieces having to exported via Batavia and then Amsterdam before travelling on to their final destinations throughout the rest of the continent. It is therefore unsurprising that such pieces became status symbols in the homes of their lucky owners and are incredibly desirable pieces to this day.
We currently have two fine examples of Japanese lacquer cabinets on European stands in our collection and the purpose of this blog post is to discuss those pieces in some detail.
The first of our two cabinets is a late 17th century Japanese export cabinet and the stand is likely to be English, or at least British, in origin and was made in the late 18th century. It is important to note that all of these early Japanese lacquer cabinets have integral feet as that was part of the original design. The idea of raising them on high stands being an entirely European concept. Anyone acquiring one of these pieces in Europe would therefore have used their own trusted cabinetmaker to make the stand and these stands were often updated with the current fashions. Therefore a piece acquired in the 17th century might have had a silvered stand in the baroque taste made for it at that time and then that stand might have been replaced with a style reflecting the rococo taste at a later date.
The present stand relates to the principals of good design set out by Thomas Chippendale in his Director of 1754 and the ebonised stand with its classic lines and fine proportions suits the cabinet beautifully. It is essentially free from decoration and so does not compete visually with the rich decoration on the cabinet itself. The sign of a fine designer.
The cabinet is conceived in what is known as the pictorial lacquer fashion, specifically fashioned to appeal to Dutch taste of the period and technically and aesthetically brilliant. As with all fine examples of lacquer, the piece consists of decoration in high and low relief for added contrast, the sprinkled gold adhering to the lacquer sap using a technique known as hiramaki-e.
The inside of the cabinet doors is particularly intriguing on this fine piece, each door employing a panel of gold lacquer with a single bird of prey perched on the branch of a tree. The inner drawers of the cabinet have lacquer landscape panels on the fronts and fine drawer handles. The lower left and right drawers also employing finely engraved lock plates. Another sign of the fine quality of this piece is the fineness of the metal hardware employed throughout. The corner and apron mounts, hinges and of course the central lock plate and hasp are of exceptionally fine manufacture. Finely cast, chased and engraved, the metalwork is truly beautiful and, like the lacquer surface itself, has survived in wonderful condition with the vast majority of its original gilding still intact.
Read through our cataloguing of this fine piece
you will learn of comparative examples we have identified in famous stately home collections and in old dealer's adverts, all part of the research we have undertaken in to this and all of our other pieces. This is a very fine example of a desirable type of cabinet which came most recently from a private Scottish collection.
Our second cabinet was also conceived in the pictorial lacquer style but was obviously made for the French market as it has an extraordinary French régence period giltwood stand, made c. 1680-90.
This piece has a long and important provenance, having been acquired by the famous Daendels family, probably around the period of the Napoleonic Wars when Herman Willem Daendels was appointed to lead the defence of Batavia for Napoleon against the British army. It is possible that this fine cabinet was given as a gift by the emperor or one of his circle in return for Daendels' service. This early provenance has not been conclusively established but it is believed that the piece did descend through the family line to Herman August Daendels who kept it until his death in 2000.
Herman August set up a foundation in his family's name to protect what remains of the family collection of historical pieces and to further research in to the Batavian-French period and the effect this has had on Dutch history and culture. An annual lecture is presented and various scholarly publications have been published by the foundation over the years. After leaving the Daendels family, this fine piece has been in the collection of some of the great European dealers of the period including Eurasia Antiques of Amsterdam and Kollenburg Antiquairs of Oirschot.
It has also been exhibited at the Biënnale des Antiquairs, Paris, 1998, the Art Affair Fair, Amsterdam, 2020 and, most importantly of all, TEFAF Maastricht with Kollenburg. These fine vetted fairs represent the pinnacle of the art trade and the vetting is legendary. The fact that this piece was exhibited at TEFAF is a considerable feather in its proverbial cap and a further sign of its quality.
Provenance aside, the piece is extraordinarily beautiful. As on the previous piece discussed above, the metalwork is exemplary in its manufacture and finishing and the pictorial lacquer to the front, sides and internal drawer fronts is extremely high quality. It is also in remarkable condition. The insides of the cabinet doors feature large scale botanical specimens on a black lacquer background and the fine detail is quite exceptional. The French giltwood stand is beautifully carved and gilded and the central urn of flowers in the middle of the stretcher was clearly conceived as a reference to the botanical motifs used on the cabinet interior.
Please see our detailed cataloguing for references to other examples of this sort in important stately home collections and for more information on the Daendels family and their role in the making of modern Holland. This is a true connoisseur's piece-something for the advanced collector perhaps or for someone looking for a piece to make an immediate impact in an important room. It is a piece with the “wow factor”.
We hope that this brief introduction to Japanese lacquer and the context in which it was imported in to Europe was informative and interesting and if we can help you in any way with further information about either of these pieces or anything else which you may have spotted on our website then please do not hesitate to get in touch.