A rare, small, Charles II fruitwood mural ventilated livery cupboard, circa 1660

A rare, small, Charles II fruitwood mural ventilated livery cupboard, circa 1660.

Having a row of turned spindle uprights, centred by a small pivotal door formed of six matching spindles, atop a central boarded cupboard door, flanked by a slender panel centred by an elongated pyramidal boss, all uprights with narrow run-mouldings headed by ring and double-bulbous turnings, and terminating in ball 'pendants'.

This small wall-hanging cupboard is particularly rare to be made substantially in fruitwood, rather than oak or elm.

A comparable ventilated cupboard is illustrated Victor Chinnery, 'Oak Furniture: The British Tradition' (2016), p. 289, fig. 3:311. The author notes 'the turned 'feet' are merely pendants, and the piece is not designed to stand'. However, it is feasible for this cupboard to be a table-top piece. See H. Cescinsky and E.R. Gribble, 'Early Furniture and Woodwork' (1922), Vol. II, p. 64, fig. 92, for an oak and fruitwood mural cupboard '….made to stand on a table or shelf or bracket, or to be fixed to the wall. Their probable use was to contain articles of food, for the keeping which ventilation was necessary'. The cupboard, formerly in the Clive Sherwood Collection, sold Sotheby's 22 May 2002, Lot 66 (£21,500), was further described by Cesinsky & Gribble as '…. the form of a miniature buffet'.

Dimensions

This object is eligible for a Certificate of BADA Provenance

Stock number