James I oak enclosed cupboard with doors and architectonic ornament. The ornament of this diminutive cupboard apes the classicized elements of early seventeenth-century English civic and domestic buildings. The upper section is recessed with a projecting jetty and overhanging pendants above. Each of the three doors (two above and one below) are flanked by stop-fluted and pedimented columns of the Doric Order. Further courses of stop-fluting appear on the jetty and on the upper rail of the lower door.
The panels of the upper door are incised with devices forming the conjoined letters on the proper-right and the single letter on the proper-left, probably the initials of the couple who originally commissioned the piece.
A central plaque affixed to the upper front rail of the lower case is inset in bone with the date ‘1551’. This appears to be an early (probably seventeenth-century) addition done for commemorative purposes.
Backboards, interior shelves, and top replaced.
Dry surface with probably original dark red stain.
· A related cupboard with similar stop-fluting and foliated lozenges was sold as lot 251, The Clive Sherwood Collection, Sothebys, 22 May, 2002.