Beschreibung:

Y A FLEMISH EBONY, TORTOISESHELL AND POLYCHROME PAINTED CABINET ON STAND LATE 17TH CENTURY, THE EBONISED STAND LATER The interior door and drawer fronts painted in oil on copper in the manner of Rubens with classical figures in landscapes biblical and mythological scenes 171cm high, 110cm wide, 50.5cm deep Provenance: Woodleys, Woodstock, Oxfordshire The grade II listed house of largely mid-late Georgian construction was originally built as a farmhouse in the 1780s and twice extended following its changes of ownership in the 1820s and 1880s. These additions resulted in the 12,800 sq. ft house comprising some 40 rooms, including 13 bedrooms. Its handsome south and east façades offer a spectacular view of the principal façade of Blenheim Palace a mere two miles to the South East beyond the noted Column of Victory. The painted panels decorating the inside of the cabinet are by an anonymous Antwerp hand (or hands), copying well known scenes by Sir Peter Paul Rubens and other Flemish masters. Depicted on the left door is a copy after Rubens' and Jan Brueghel the Elder's Diana and her Nymphs Leaving for the Hunt in the collection of Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature in Paris. This scene is complimented on the inside of the right door with Diana and her Nymphs Resting after the Hunt, again after an original by Rubens. The central section is decorated with smaller mythological scenes from Ovid's Metamorphoses as well as one Biblical scene from the Old Testament: Pan and Syrinx; Latona and the Lycian fishermen; The Rape of Europa; The Daughters of Cecrops finding Erichtonius (top to bottom, left hand drawers); Narcissus at the Well; Meleager and Atalanta; Pyramus and Thisbe; and Lot and his family fleeing Sodom (top to bottom, right hand drawers). In the middle section one finds Apollo and Daphne as well as a depiction of Mercury and Herse after a work by Guillaume Forchondt, who was a maker of cabinets himself and led the Forchondt firm in Antwerp from 1636. Condition Report: There are scratches, marks, knocks, cracks and abrasions consistent with age and use. There are losses, observations and restorations including: missing the hinged top; splits including to the parquetry top interior, some mouldings, some exterior panels; signs of dowel repairs to the hinges; some detached veneers; the interior with some scratches, flaking and indentations with paint worn where some drawer handles have protruded into the painted metal panels; the rosewood like drawer linings with some splits and tape; the top central drawer missing a key, the later lock is open; the key operates three spring locks to the outer doors, the exterior drawer and the central interior drawer; the mirror has the appearance of being later, some traces of glue to the corinthian column suggesting repairs including reglued and possibly replaced tortoiseshell veneers; the interior with bone and tortoiseshell parquetry floor; the slide possibly later and with a split to one side; the ebonised stand is later; there is some evidence of worm. Please see the additional photographs as a visual reference of condition. Condition Report Disclaimer