Fine 17th Century William and Mary Burr Walnut Marquetry Chest of DrawersA William and Mary walnut floral marquetry chest, circa 1690.The rectangular ogee moulded top with a central banded oval inlaid with spring flowers, birds and scrolls of acanthus, on an ebony ground.The two short over three long oak-lined graduating drawers are similarly inlaid with reserves of marquetry and each drawer is banded in a wide leafy cut marquetry border.The burr walnut sides are banded in a marquetry border with large reserves of marquetry to the centre depicting tulips and spring flowers rising from a plume acanthusAccording to Herbert Cescinsky in ‘English Furniture of the 18th Century’, the general spacing of marquetry during the period 1690-1705 into panels probably owed its inception to the copying of the Jacobean carved panels of the period, directly before the accession of William III. He argues that “the work of Holland is decidedly inferior in harmony of colouring, the Eng...