Rare bureau cabinet sells for £120,000 at Shrewsbury auction
A rare George I bureau cabinet grabbed the headlines as it sold for £120,000 at Shropshire’s leading fine art auction house yesterday.
The superb scarlet and gilt Japanned double domed bureau cabinet, described by Halls’ fine at director Jeremy Lamond as “probably the best piece of furniture consigned to the company for a decade” sold to a London trade buyer.
Consigned by a Mid Wales border vendor, the bureau cabinet was the top selling lot at Halls’ £484,000 high quality auction of antique furniture, ceramics and works of art at the Welsh Bridge saleroom in Shrewsbury.
It was purchased in London before the Second World War and had more than a passing resemblance to a similar piece attributed to John Belchier in the state bedroom at Erddig near Wrexham.
“There are very few red lacquered pieces from that period still in existence and it was extremely rare for one to be offered at auction,” said Mr Lamond. ”In its day, this piece of furniture was the Ferrari of its class. It would have been made for the bedroom of a top country house around 1720.
“It is difficult to attribute a maker as many London and provincial makers were guided by 'Treatise of Japanning and Varnishing’ by John Stalker and George Parker in 1688.”
The cabinet was decorated all over with gilded chinoiserie, including flowers and mounted figures on the fall, and the interior was just as impressive as the exterior. Behind the ogee arched glazed mirror doors of the double domed top lay an elaborate interior of pigeon holes and short drawers.
