A George I gilt and faux-aventurine Japanned coffer on stand, circa 1720 decorated with Chinoiserie figures within landscapes and simulated nashiji borders, the stand with shell-painted apron on cabriole legs, white painted museum accession number, 388.66B to typed paper label, R7327 in graphite, 97.0 m high, 180.5cm wide, 61.0cm deep Footnotes: Provenance Collection of Florence May Schoenborn and Samuel A. Marx, United States of America The Art Institute of Chicago, United States of America, a gift from the above in 1940 Christie's, Connoisseur's Eye, New York, 21 October 2014, lot 8 Private collection, Queensland The imitation of Chinese lacquer, or japanning, was widespread in early eighteenth-century England, reflecting the considerable European demand for these exotic and highly fashionable wares. Japanned coffers, however, appear to have been considerably rarer. An important early example is recorded at Chatsworth, where the so-called 'Japan Closet', first documented in 1697, contains a pair of coffers-on-stands constructed from lacquer panels. The 1764 inventory records these furnishings, including 'One India old Japan'd [lacquer] Chest on a Gilt Frame' and 'two India old Japan Chestes', together with 'Two Blue and White China Jarr' listed below 'two India Cabinets'. A closely related pair of coffers was commissioned from China by Sir Francis Wyndham, Bt. (d. 1755), following his elevation in 1741 as Lord Montfort, Baron of Horseheath. The coffers proudly bear his coat-of-arms and subsequently entered the collection at Adare Manor, Co. Limerick, Ireland, through marriage. Another Chinese lacquer coffer, formerly in the collection of the Earls of Verulam at Gorhambury, Hertfordshire, is illustrated in M. Jourdain and R. S. Jenyns, Chinese Export Art in the Eighteenth Century, Middlesex, 1985, p. 86, fig. 26. These surviving examples are particularly significant in demonstrating the fashion for Chinese lacquer furnishings in eighteenth-century Britain. Significantly, each of these Chinese-made coffers was subsequently mounted on an English stand, illustrating the period practice of adapting and incorporating imported lacquer panels into European interiors. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing