Both cabinet-on-stands are in two sections; the top section with two doors which open to reveal ten rosewood-lined drawers of varying sizes. The lower section with a single frieze drawer. The whole decorated with ebony carved in deep relief. Each of the doors and the side panels are carved with the same design: a vase in the centre at the bottom which issues undulating vines, leaves and flowers. The top of each cabinet is carved with a central flowerhead, from which scroll vines and flowers. Each base with a label on the underside printed ‘CHOLMONDELEY’. Raised on ball feet. The four legs joined by an X-shaped stretcher.

Whilst there are a small number of single examples of such carved ebony cabinet-on-stands in museum collections, there are no other known pairs.

There is reference to an ebony table acquired by Richard Heber in 1823 in a family will written in February 1922. This table, which relates to the pair of cabinets in both its design and its origin, was purchased from the auction of William Beckford’s collection from Fonthill Abbey and remains in the family’s collection. Beckford’s collection contained a number of similar items of ebony furniture which appear in the auction catalogue and in various watercolours and prints which depict the interior of Beckford’s gothic folly. However, unfortunately there is no catalogue entry for this pair of cabinets in either the 1823 or the earlier 1801 sale. When Richard Heber died, his sister Mrs Mary Cholmondeley was appointed the administrator of his estate in which she received a life interest, valued at £200,000. Heber owned an enormous library which filled eight houses and was sold in London, Paris and Ghent between 1834-7. Interestingly, there were similar pieces of ebony furniture appear in the collections of other book collectors such as Horace Walpole and William Beckford, as described above. Heber’s great wealth enabled him to collect such exotic, rich and exuberant furniture. It is probable that Heber acquired this pair of cabinets and passed them on to his sister.

Both of the cabinets has a printed label on the rear which reads: ‘R. Maddox & Co., Ltd., / Depositories: / Wyle Cop & Hill’s Lane, / Shrewsbury. / 'K9781’ and ‘K9782’. R. Maddox & Co. Ltd. of Shrewsbury was a removal firm and the adjacent pictorial enamel sign depicts their steam removal lorry and trailer. It is likely that the printed labels on these cabinets were attached during a move to or from the home of Reginald Cholmondeley of Condover Hall, Shropshire – which is located to the south of Shrewsbury.

In ‘Furniture from British India and Ceylon: A Catalogue of the Collections in the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Peabody Essex Museum’, Amin Jaffer begins his chapter on the ‘Coromandel Coast’ by stating that: ‘No other group of Indo-European furniture has been as misunderstood as carved ebony furniture made in India, Ceylon and the Dutch East Indies in the second half of the seventeenth century. The furniture itself is of solid ebony, pierced or carved in various degrees of relief… Among the forms made were large suites of chairs and setteees, and, less commonly, tables, cradles, beds, cabinets, and boxes.’ He explains that: ‘much of the confusion about their origin is due to the belief held in the second half of the eighteenth and most of the nineteenth centuries that they were surviving examples of early English furniture.’ (Amin Jaffer, ‘Furniture from British India and Ceylon: A Catalogue of the Collections in the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Peabody Essex Museum’, Timeless Books, New Delhi, 2001, p.130). The notion that this ebony furniture was in fact Tudor furniture was sustained for a number of reasons: the perception that the furniture’s rigid form was antiquated; the use of twist-turning was believed to be typical of Elizabethan furniture; the elaborate and distinctive carving included fantastical beasts and figures; and the black colouring, which was commonly associated with furniture of great antiquity. Horace Walpole (1717-1797), who appears to have been primarily responsible for this misattribution, based his attribution of the age of such items of furniture on its physical attributes, and this was further confirmed by examples being found in Tudor houses. Walpole’s conviction that carved ebony furniture of this type was early English work had become firmly established by the early 19th Century and continued to be held for most of the century. However, such ebony furniture was made in South India, Ceylon and the Dutch East Indies in the late 17th and 18th centuries. Walpole’s villa, Strawberry Hill, was designed as a Georgian Gothic residence for which he purchased items of ebony furniture similar to those which he coveted at William Kent’s Esher Place in Surrey, which had been completed in 1733.

The Coromandel Coast was the centre of production of carved ebony furniture from the seventeenth century, and Jaffer explains the difficulties in attributing carved ebony furniture as being from the Coromandel Coast, as opposed to Batavia or Ceylon, as the same materials and similar craftsmanship were available in all three locations.

Jan Veenendaal discusses the differences in the carved surfaces in ebony furniture in ‘Furniture from Indonesia, Sri Lanka and India during the Dutch Period’ (Volkenkundig Museum Nusantara, Delft, 1985). He identifies two distinct periods relating to carved detail and references a number of examples to support this categorisation. Of the cabinets referenced below, the examples sold in Sotheby’s in May 2018 and the cabinet housed in the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, both demonstrate the use of low-relief carving, which Veenendaal dates to 1650-1680, coming from the Coromandel Coast of India. He dates the higher relief carving which can be seen on our pair of cabinets as being slightly later – between 1680-1720. Jaffer notes that by 1690 furniture was described as being ‘carved with large and small floral designs’, which he suggests might have been used to refer to work carved in high and low relief (Amin Jaffer, ‘Furniture from British India and Ceylon’, p.134). The high relief carving, identified as being later by both Jaffer and Veenendall, features almost three dimensional large ‘sculpted’ flower heads and tendrils, compared with the shallower foliate motifs on the cabinets carved in low relief. Jaffer refers to an inventory from 1690, prepared for Cornelia Linis, which details: ‘twelve high kaliatur [ebony from India or Sri Lanka] wood chairs with large flowers’; and another from 1700 for Elizabeth Jans which includes: ‘five low and to high ebony coast-chairs with small flowers’ (ibid, p.134). Jaffer comments that scholars have drawn parallels with the tombstone carving on late 17th century gravestones from the Coromandel Coast, which feature similar bold floral motifs from about 1680 (ibid, p.134, figure 63). Few examples of furniture carved with bold flowers which pre-date 1680 are present in Britain, supporting this argument that furniture with bold foliate motifs and thicker, deeper carving were made in the late 17th and early 18th century.

A very similar cabinet, of the same period and form as this pair of cabinets, is housed in the Rijksmuseum. Dated circa 1680-1700, the Rijksmuseum catalogues this cabinet as ‘probably made for a Dutchman on the east coast of India, the so-called Coromandel Coast. Its shape is decidedly Dutch, while the decoration is Indian. VOC officials moving on to their next post sometimes took along their expensive furniture. As a result, these ebony cabinets with large carved floral motifs also became extremely popular in Batavia.’ This cabinet is possibly from the same workshop as our pair (Cabinet, Anonymous, c. 1680-1700; Object number: BK-1968-48; Height: 142cm; Width: 88cm; Depth: 51cm); http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.301260

This cabinet features ‘shallow-’ or ‘low-’ relief carving and relates to a set of seat furniture most probably acquired by Thomas, 1st Viscount Weymouth for Longleat, 1640–1714 (see Christie’s London, 17 November 1988, lot 77); and to a pair of side chairs which are ensuite with a settee at Cotehele, Cornwall. These are dated to 1640 and are illustrated by Amin Jaffer in ‘Furniture from British India and Ceylon’, p.133, fig.61.

A cabinet-on-stand which has similar shallow relief carving of birds, tendrils and flowers, which was made in Sri Lanka – possibly as early as 1650 – is in the collection of the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag (Object Number: 0540200). This cabinet is ebony on teak carved in low relief on a hammered ground and with silver fittings. It is slightly smaller, but a similar size to our cabinet: Width: 78cm; Depth: 47.5cm; Height: 133cm.