Embellished with pewter strapwork and figural marquetry, the present bureau and in particular its superstructure relates to the oeuvre of the celebrated Antwerp furniture-maker and dealer Hendrik van Soest (1659 - after 1726). The chinoiserie scenes are certainly after designs by the Dutch traveler Johan Nieuhof (1618-1672). Desks of this model with the same specific decoration can be firmly attributed to the workshop of van Soest based on a description and design of a similar piece by van Soest for the Elector J. H. von Horsbeck in the Landeshauptarchiv, Coblenz (see Landeshauptarchiv, Abt. IC, no. 322, f. 8, 9, 10 & 11). Probably the most well known example of a similar desk was made for Maximilian II Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria, for his summer residence Schloss Schleissheim, near Munich. This desk is now in the collection of the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum (R3362), see H. Kreisel, Die Kunst des Deutschen Möbels, Spätbarok und Rokoko, Munich, 1970, pls. 318-322. A very similar desk with such pewter chinoiserie inlays was sold Sotheby’s, London, 7 December 2005, lot 147. For a spectacular example of a Van Soest cabinet with pewter inlays on tortoiseshell, see Masterpieces from a Rothschild Collection; Christie's, London, 4 July 2019, lot 50 (£1,571,250, sold after sale).
Hendrick van Soest can be considered to be the last great representative of the marchand-ébénistes of Antwerp. He was the successor of the celebrated Forchoudt and Musson dynasties, who propagated Antwerp’s great tradition of marquetry furniture across Europe through their highly-successful branches in Vienna and Madrid. He never reached the same celebrity as his predecessors, partly due to the political troubles that followed the Austrian takeover of Spanish-dominated Flanders, but more significantly still, due to the financial woes that affected his leading patron, the Elector Maximilian I of Bavaria (1597-1651). The Prince’s setbacks caused him to default on payments to Van Soest which he enumerated at 2 million livres in his memoirs. This forced Van Soest to sell his Brussels and Antwerp shops in 1713.
Contemporary images of Asia engraved and published by emissaries of the Dutch East Indies Company, as well as the presence of Jesuit missionaries in China, provided abundant if not completely accurate documentation for European artists. One such illustrated account was published by Nieuhof in 1669 following an ambassadorial visit to the 'Great Tartar Chan', in 1665 when Nieuhof joined Pieter van Goyer and Jacob de Keyser on the mission to visit the Emperor Chun-Chi. Nieuhof’s work included many incidental remarks on the manners and customs of the Chinese, together with general description of the Chinese Empire. The accompanying illustrations showed town views in China, Tibet and Tartary, together with subjects such as costume and natural history. Nieuhof's engravings were highly influential and provided European artists with a range of enticing images of the East. Many of these engravings were copied directly, but they often served as a starting point for more fantastic designs. Eventually, exotic elements having no relation to Asia, such as African figures, became inextricably tangled with true Asian ornament, forming a view of the East more imagined and whimsical than correct.
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