Wonderfully preserved, precious lacquer cabinet
Spa, around 1770

In the 18th century, the Belgian town of Spa experienced a golden age not only as a famous spa resort – its numerous mineral springs were said to possess significant healing powers – but also as a center of European lacquer art. Boxes of all kinds, decorated with elaborate lacquer painting, including bonbonnieres, boxes for tea, powder, cigars, and tobacco, or toilet sets, were popular collector's items among the wealthy and often crowned visitors to the town, which soon earned the nickname "Café de l'Europe".

Particularly precious were small pieces of furniture decorated with lacquer techniques, such as this magnificent cabinet, entirely lacquered in imitation tortoiseshell, generously decorated in a brocade-like style, and painted with elegant Chinoiserie scenes. Since both the insides of the doors and the fronts of the drawers hidden behind them are decorated, as well as the back of the piece, it can be displayed both closed and open, and free-standing in a salon. The Chinoiserie motifs, elaborately rendered in gold lacquer, reflect the exotic, fairytale-like conceptions of a highly cultivated empire. The cabinet, decorated in Europe following the example of Asian luxury objects, testifies to the enormous enthusiasm for the exquisite original porcelains, silk wallpapers, and lacquerware from the Far East.

Height 39 cm, Width 46 cm, Depth 31 cm.
Huth, Lacquer of the West: History of a Craft and an Industry, Chicago 1971, pp. 307ff.