A RARE SET OF JAPANESE NANBAN SEIGAN LACQUER PANELS AND AN OIL PAINTING BY PIETER HOLSTEYN I (1585-1662) MOUNTED WITHIN AESTHETIC MOVEMENT ROSEWOOD CABINET ATTRIBUTED TO THOMAS JECKYLL (1827-1881).

Lacquer panels Momoyama period, circa 1600, the painting dated 1627, the cabinet circa 1875.

The cabinet with a breakfront outline upper section divided into three doors, each within reed moulded slats, the central door inset with an Old Master oil on oak board painting depicting peacocks, a turkey, exotic birds and domestic fowl in a rustic landscape alongside a dilapidated farmhouse, signed to lower margin P. Holsteyn fe 1627, framed by a chevron border of Japanese lacquer and mother of pearl, flanked by two small panelled door featuring a raden (mother-of-pearl) inlay and makie-decorated Japanese lacquer panels of birds amongst stylised blossoms and foliage, all contained within chequered bands, the doors opening to reveal velvet-lined shelves. Each side inset with a matching lacquer panel decorated with a peacock amidst trees, flowers and foliage with thick inlaid chevron borders above and below. The separate stand beneath with six velvet-lined drawers supported on four channelled square-section front legs with an undertier platform below, the back panelled and resting on two short feet, each brass lock punched with English makers’ mark

93cm wide x 34cm deep x 130.5cm high

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PROVENANCE:

The personal collection of Andrew McIntosh Patrick (b. 1934), a former Chairman and Director of the Fine Art Society, housed in his flat above the Fine Art Society and later at his Georgian property at 34 Craven Street, Charing Cross

Christie's, London, 5 November 2007, Japanese Art and Design, lot 146

English private collection

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EXHIBITED:

The Barbican Art Gallery, London, Japan and Britain, An Aesthetic Dialogue, 1850-1930, 17 October - 12 January 1992.

Setagaya Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan and Britain, An Aesthetic Dialogue, 1850-1930, 1992.

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FEATURED:

Japan and Britain, An Aesthetic Dialogue, 1850-1930, edited and with texts by T. Sato and T. Watanabe, 1991, London, cat. 115, pp.'s 28-29 & p.117.

Japan and Britain, An Aesthetic Dialogue, 1850-1930, 1992, Tokyo, fig. 115, p.102.

Nest: A Quarterly of Interiors, No.16, Spring 2002, A Sharp Dresser (or two) by B. Bainbridge.

The World of Interiors, June 2007, Morocco Bound by R. Muir.

Footnote by S. Calloway (Curator, Prints, Victoria and Albert Museum), Christie's, London, 5 November 2007, Japanese Art and Design, lot 146.

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FURTHER READING:

Furniture with similar handles and desks featuring lacquer panels are illustrated in J. Tsoumas, A New Road to Modernity: Thomas Jeckyll's Design Innovations or the Reformation of the Mid-Victorian Decorative Arts Through the Japanese Culture, Res Mobilis 5(5):135, January 2016, pp. 144-7, fig 6 & 8

S.W. Soros and C. Arbuthnott, Thomas Jeckyll, Architect and Designer, 1827-1881), 2003, New York, the furniture for 1 Holland Park designed by Jeckyll are illustrated in fig. 5-1, 5-49, 5-50, 5-51 & 5-54, pp.'s 168, 187 & 188.

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RELATED EXAMPLES:

A desk in a similar style and almost identical handles was designed by Thomas Jeckyll in the collection of the V&A, accession no W.13-1972.

A lacquer Seigan housed in the Suntory Museum of Art, Tokyo, another in the Peabody Essex Museum, accession no AE85752.

A related painting by Pieter I Holsteyn, which illustrates a peacock, a turkey and chickens within a landscape sold Sotheby's, Amsterdam, 3 May 1999, lot 188.

This well-proportioned piece of furniture gracefully combines two originally unrelated elements: the Japanese Nanban lacquer panels and a Dutch Old Master painting mounted within an Aesthetic Movement cabinet door. The entire piece seems to have been designed around the older elements respecting their age, size and value. It was possibly part of a larger design project commissioned with Thomas Jeckyll (1827-1881).

Several of its elements suggest links with documented consignments carried out by this member of the Aesthetic Movement, heavily influenced by Japanese furniture design and executed in the new Anglo-Japanese style. One of Jeckyll's most ambitious projects was a commission form Alexander ('Alecco') Ionides (1810-1890) to provide furniture for his new residence in 1 Holland Park in London, in this new style. Handles used on some of the furniture produced for Ionides appear identical to those featured in the current lot.

Another challenging commission came from Frederick Richards Leyland (1831-1892), a Liverpool-born shipping magnate and collector. He requested a design for a dining room of his home at 49 Princes' Gate in London, which meant to display his vast collection of Chinese porcelain. The project ran through 1873-1876 and due to the selected palette of blue, green and gold as well as the prevalent bird motif became known as the 'Peacock Room'. Jeckyll started to draw out blueprints for the custom-made furniture and display shelves, but tragically fell ill and had to pass the project to James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) who finalised the design and furnished it with his paintings. The same exotic bird appears both on the Japanese lacquer panels as well as in the Old Master painting featured in the current cabinet, but we do not have enough concrete evidence to believe it was designed for this specific interior.

Furniture incorporating Japanese lacquer was not a 19^th century invention and there are multiple pieces documented in important European royal collections proudly displaying rare Asian lacquer as a main component. The panels fixed into the front door and the sides of the present cabinet are its’ oldest elements. They are in the style known as the Nanban lacquer, made for export markets in the Momoyama period (1568-1600). Nanban (or Namban), ‘a Southern Barbarian’, is a Japanese term describing a foreigner, thus object produced for those overseas visitors gained that derogatory moniker.

The characteristic feature of Nanban is mother-of-pearl inlay on a black lacquer ground combined with gold dust maki-e -‘sprinkled image’, achieved by sprinkling metal powder over moist lacquer. Nanban pieces were almost exclusively commissioned by the Portuguese missionaries to house relics of saints and small devotional images in portable shrines known as Seigan. It is possible that the panels currently incorporated in the present lot have been previously used in such an altar, concealing a religious painting behind a pair of hinged doors. If this indeed was the case, considerable effort was made to choose an artwork of the right size to replace the devotional image in the central door.

The ultimate choice fell on the work of Pieter Holsteyn, an artist active in early 17^th century around Haarlem, specialising in depicting birds. The painting’s composition and the signature and date present on the lower margin indicate that the panel was not reduced to fit the cabinet door but instead carefully selected in terms of size and subject matter, corresponding thematically with the peacock design on the lacquer panels.