REGENCY PERIOD CABINET CHEST, CIRCA 1720 In amaranth veneer and Japanese lacquer, decorated with a gold lacustrine landscape with birds on a black background, partly carved and gilded bronze ornamentation, cherry red marble top, the front opening with ten drawers in four rows, the top of which conceals a double-bottomed drawer, the backs in aventurine-style varnish, the rounded jambs; restorations. H.85 cm (33 ½ in.); W: 108 cm (42 ½ in.) ; D.: 57 cm (22 ½ in.) Provenance: Sale in Paris, Hôtel Drouot, 16 March 2018, lot 127 (€ 52,000) ; Acquired by the current owner. A Regence gilt-bronze mounted, amaranth and Japanese lacquer commode en cabinet, circa 1720 This astonishing commode is a precious example of the fusion between lacquered cabinets from Japan and the first forms of commode developed by French cabinet-makers towards the end of the reign of Louis XIV. Introduced to Europe by Portuguese traders, it was with the establishment of the Dutch East India Company in the early 16th century that the craze for lacquerware spread rapidly among the aristocratic families and elites of the day. Small lacquer cabinets, containing ten or more drawers, designed to be placed above elegant gilded wooden bases, were the most sought-after objects. The Regency period coincided with a period of renewal and experimentation in the search for new forms in furniture, as evidenced by the incorporation of the drawer fronts of Japanese lacquer cabinets on chests of drawers such as our example. Atypical and rare, these "cabinet" chests of drawers appealed to a small group of discerning connoisseurs, and we may recall the presence of a chest of drawers of this model in the inventory of furniture belonging to Madame de Pompadour in her château at Saint-Ouen, or another in the famous Gaignat sale of 1768. This form evolved under the reign of Louis XV, and a few rare examples survived and were adapted to the forms of Louis XVI furniture, such as the Japanese lacquer cabinet chest of drawers stamped by Joseph Baumhauer from the former Segoura collection and illustrated in T. Wolvesperges, Le Meuble Français en laque au XVIIIe siècle, les éditions de l'Amateur, 1999, p. 83, Fig. 62. Our chest of drawers belongs to a very limited corpus; among the few known comparable examples, we should mention the following: -Two chests of drawers preserved in the Pagodenburg of Nymphenburg Castle (cf. B. Langer, Die Möbel der Schlösser Nymphenburg und Schleißheim, Prestel, 2000, p. 75-79, N° 8-9). -A chest of drawers sold in Paris, Me Ader-Picard-Tajan, on 5 December 1974, lot 90 (gilded wooden base with the arms of Max-Emmanuel of Bavaria). -Another, from the former Maurice Segoura collection and illustrated in T. Wolvesperges, Le Meuble Français en laque au XVIIIe siècle, les éditions de l'Amateur, 1999, p. 81, Fig. 61. -A third, sold at Sotheby's Paris, 23 June 2021, lot 35. -A final one, sold at Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 23 May 2023, lot 69.