Georgian bureau cabinet. England, 18th century

Georgian bureau cabinet. England, 18th century.
Walnut root wood, pine structure.
Measurements: 224 x 97 x 53 cm.

Furniture of two bodies, with bureau in the low part and cabinet in the superior part, typology very appreciated in this time called in the Anglo-Saxon scope "secretaire and bookcase", very representative of the English cabinetmaking of the Baroque period. Dutch cabinetmaking of the late Baroque period received fertile influences from English furniture. The lower body has a chest of drawers raised on bracket feet, very common in English furniture. It consists of four registers of decreasing height, the largest being located at the bottom, so as to avoid overloading the structure (by placing the heaviest objects in this drawer of the base). The bureau that crowns the chest of drawers has a 45º inclined top, as usual. Inside, the bureau has a simple display of small drawers and niches in a symmetrical arrangement. The upper cabinet has two doors that end in semicircular arches, fitting into the arch of the finial and following the same forms of the William & Mary and Queen Anne mirrors. Inside, the cabinet has drawers, short cuts (called "pidgeon holes" in England), with sinuous frontal cutouts and semicircular arches, arranged in attractive combinations. It ends with a truncated semicircular arch, typical of the Georgian style.