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Attributed to Gerard Dagly of Berlin, c. 1690; the stands attributed to James Moore c. 1720 the cabinets japanned white with polychrome and gilt decoration; the stands gilt wood . Cabinets, 60cm high, 42cm deep, 69cm wide; Stands, 76cm high, 48cm deep, 76cm wide.

Each cabinet is constructed and japanned in imitation of Chinese export lacquer cabinets with low scallop-edged plinths, and fitted with foliate-engraved brass plaques, hinges and lock escutcheons. The interior is fitted with four pairs of drawers of various sizes, one pair being fitted with locks for bolting into the sides of the cabinet. The doors are japanned on the exterior with phoenix in lakeside gardens and on the interior and drawer fronts with figures and animals in hillocky pleasure gardens.

The decorative artist John Stalker of St James's Market, London, published illustrations of this type of decoration in his Treatise of Japanning and Varnishing, 1688, but the quality of the cabinets most closely relates to that produced by the Berlin workshops of the artist Gerard Dagly (d. 1715).

Their early eighteenth-century gilt-wood stands, with acanthus-bulb feet and cross stretchers, are in the manner of James Moore (d. 1726) cabinetmaker of St Giles-in-the-Fields. They replace earlier stands that were japanned in black in 1694 by Gerrit Jensen (d. 1715), when he restored the cabinets.

Gerrit Jensen was paid £5 on 29 December 1694 'For mending the Jappan for 2 white India Cabinets & varnishing the frames black and cleaning the brass work' (Executors' Accounts, 1712, f. 864). Phillip Harris, Locksmith, provided 'For 2 Inside Locks and a plain case hardened key to a Japan Cabinet Deliver'd to Mr. Johnson...£0.12.0', on 24 November 1694, which may refer to one of these cabinets.

PROVENANCE Ralph, 1st Duke of Montagu, thence by descent. In 1707 these cabinets were in the Corner Room at the west end of the House below stairs described as '2 little white India Cabinets' at Montagu House, Bloomsbury.