A Chinese Export Black and Gold Lacquer Serpentine Chest of Drawers, Second Half 18th Century

Marjorie Wiggin Prescott (1893-1980), Greenwich, Connecticut;

Christie's New York, 31 January 1981, lot 318.

Marjorie Wiggin Prescott was the daughter of the Wall Street financier Albert H. Wiggin (1868-1951), a president of Chase Bank who helped build the firm into one of the largest financial institutions in the United States. At her Greenwich residence she formed a prestigious collection of prints, rare books and manuscripts and English furniture that was sold after her death in a series of landmark auctions in New York. The furniture sale on 31 January 1981 doubled its pre-sale estimate and was described by the London dealer John Partridge as 'the finest collection of English furniture to appear on the American market since World War II' ('English Furniture Returns to Favor', New York Times 15 February 1981).

It has been suggested that commodes of this model were manufactured in Canton for the Danish market, although chests of drawers of comparable serpentine silhouette appear in other Northern European countries including the Netherlands, and both countries were the first Western states to establish East India trading companies with Asia (in 1602 and 1616 respectively). A Chinese Export lacquer commode of related design was sold Christie's New York, 6 June 2013, lot 4 ($127,000).