Strauss & co - 10 - 11 May 2020, Cape Town

91 PROPERTY OF A COLLECTOR LOTS 338–363 362 A Cape van der Stel stinkwood side chair, first half 18th century the oval shaped caned back enclosed by a pair of bearded masks in profile above c-scroll and leaf carving, with vase-filled cresting, the twist- turned side supports headed by later block and ring-turned finials, caned seat with reeded seat rails, on block and barley-twist legs, on ring-turned bun feet joined by a box-stretcher R40 000 - 50 000 PROVENANCE Deon Viljoen & Guus Röell, Cape Town, 2003. LITERATURE Deon Viljoen & Guus Röell (2003) Uit Verre Streken , Cape Town & Maastricht exhibition catalogue, Ince Cape (Pty) Ltd, illustration No 4. Mathilda Burden (2015) Old Cape Furniture Studies in styles , SUN MeDIA, Stellenbosch, illustrated on page 75, fig. 148. cf. G. E. Pearse (1960) Eighteenth Century Furniture in South Africa , Pretoria, page 22, fig. 24, where a near example is illustrated from the Property of Mrs H. G. Mackeurtan. 363 A Cape van der Stel stinkwood side chair, 18th century the stepped arched top-rail above a caned splat and conforming mid-rail, ring-turned tapering supports headed by turned and ring-turned finials, caned seat, on block-headed ring-turned baluster legs, block- and-bun feet joined by a box-stretcher R40 000 - 50 000 PROVENANCE Deon Viljoen & Guus Röell, Cape Town, 2003. LITERATURE Deon Viljoen & Guus Röell (2003) Uit Verre Streken , Cape Town & Maastricht exhibition catalogue, Ince Cape (Pty) Ltd, illustration No 3. Mathilda Burden (2015) Old Cape Furniture Studies in styles , SUN MeDIA, Stellenbosch, illustrated on page 79, fig. 161, from the Drostdy Museum, Swellendam. ‘High-back chairs, with oval caned backs set in baroque-carved frames, seem to have had brief popularity at the Cape, judging from the few surviving examples. The introduction of this style coincided with the governorships of Simon van der Stel (1679-1699) and his successor, his son Willem Adriaen van der Stel (1699-1701). Their patrician ambitions, conspicuous display of wealth and adoption of aristocratic life-styles at their great country estates of Constantia and Vergelegen would have called for such fashionable furniture. Although a number of Cape chairs have been recorded with the characteristic twist- turned elements seen, for instance, in the William-and-Mary type, many more with the typical baluster-turned back posts and legs have survived.’ 1 1. Deon Viljoen & Guus Röell (2003) Uit Verre Streken , Cape Town & Maastricht exhibition catalogue, Ince Cape (Pty) Ltd.