A rare "seaweed" cabinet in mahogany and rosewood veneer, hardstone decorated with flowers and animals, paesine plaque, ormolu, ormolu and blackened wood. The front opens to reveal twelve drawers and a flap revealing four drawers. It stands on a carved openwork and giltwood base with a gadrooned waistband on four leafy hocked legs holding large garlands and a stylised central shell. England, William & Mary period (1700-1725), attributed to Gerrit Jensen (1667-1715). The Regency base, England, circa 1830. H. 176 cm - W. 140 cm, D. 49.6 cmWhile the fashion for cabinets decorated with hard stones may have faded somewhat in France at the end of the 17th century, it was still very much in vogue across the Channel. The proof is this cabinet, made between 1700 and 1725, probably by Gerrit Jensen, a cabinetmaker of Dutch or Flemish origin who worked in London between 1680 and 1715. He was the inventor of the decoration known as seaweed, and the only one to use metal in his marquetry. Inspired by the style fashioned in France by Pierre Gole, Daniel Marot and André-Charles Boulle, Jensen introduced the Anglo-Dutch style, reinforced by the arrival in power of William III of Orange-Nassau and his wife Marie. As in Holland, the style was characterised by beautiful smooth surfaces and veneers in shimmering colours, such as walnut, acacia and guaiac, allowing for decorations in the shape of oyster shells, arabesques and seaweed. The architectural aspect, with columns and secret niches, is reminiscent of Florentine models in circulation since the 16th century, while the hard stone decoration is reminiscent of the products of the opificio delle pietre dure ("hard stone workshop") founded by Ferdinand I de' Medici, third Grand Duke of Tuscany. Our furniture is adorned with a second type of marquetry called paesine, named after a variety of limestone from the Apennines whose many cracks and inclusions give it a ruiniform appearance when polished, earning it the name "Florentine marble".