拍品专文
This pair of cabinets is conceived in the last phase of the development of Dutch Neoclassical furniture, between circa 1780 and 1795. Marquetry furniture produced in the preceding period - with naturalistic marquetry and picturesque ormolu mounts - clearly derived from French prototypes; this later phase demonstrates a fusion of foreign taste, whereby English influences gradually overshadowed those from France. This English influx was probably stimulated by the spread of printed furniture designs, such as Hepplewhite's The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Guide (1788) and Sheraton's The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Drawing-Book (1794), which were almost certainly available in Holland and subsequently became a source of inspiration to local cabinet-makers (R.J. Baarsen, Meubelen en Zilver op de tentoonstelling 'Edele Eenvoud, Neo-classicisme in Nederland 1765-1800', Frans Halsmuseum, Haarlem, 1989, p. 119).
It is interesting that during this English-inspired phase of marquetry furniture, with a preference for light woods and simplified geometric motifs, Dutch cabinet-makers often enriched their pieces with panels of Japanese and Chinese lacquer as well as japanning, a style promoted by French marchand-merciers such as Simon-Philippe Poirier. Reinier Baarsen has suggested that this type of decoration may have been a speciality of cabinet-makers working in The Hague, and may in fact have been introduced by the celebrated cabinet-maker Matthijs Horrix (1735-1809), who supplied Princess Wilhelmina of Prussia, wife of Stadholder Prince William V, with '...Comodes wozu ihm Chinesisch Lackwerck geliefert', as early as 1780, for which he received 557 florins (R.J. Baarsen, ''In de commode van Parijs tot Den Haag', Mattijs Horrix (1735-1809), een meubelmaker in Den Haag in de 2de helft van de 18de eeuw', Oud Holland 107 (1993), p. 176).
It is interesting that during this English-inspired phase of marquetry furniture, with a preference for light woods and simplified geometric motifs, Dutch cabinet-makers often enriched their pieces with panels of Japanese and Chinese lacquer as well as japanning, a style promoted by French marchand-merciers such as Simon-Philippe Poirier. Reinier Baarsen has suggested that this type of decoration may have been a speciality of cabinet-makers working in The Hague, and may in fact have been introduced by the celebrated cabinet-maker Matthijs Horrix (1735-1809), who supplied Princess Wilhelmina of Prussia, wife of Stadholder Prince William V, with '...Comodes wozu ihm Chinesisch Lackwerck geliefert', as early as 1780, for which he received 557 florins (R.J. Baarsen, ''In de commode van Parijs tot Den Haag', Mattijs Horrix (1735-1809), een meubelmaker in Den Haag in de 2de helft van de 18de eeuw', Oud Holland 107 (1993), p. 176).