A SPANISH BONE-INLAID TORTOISESHELL AND EBONY COLLECTOR'S CABINET

THIRD QUARTER 17TH CENTURY

Details

A SPANISH BONE-INLAID TORTOISESHELL AND EBONY COLLECTOR'S CABINET
Third quarter 17th century
The rectangular top surmounted by a later three-quarter gallery with baluster spindles, above two drawers decorated with masks flanked by trumpet-playing youths, above a central architectural faade with a broken triangular pediment centered by a cherub in an eared frame, above a rectangular panel decorated with a scene from the story of Diana and Acteon, flanked by turned columns above scrolls and a panel decorated with a mask flanked by maiden, flanked to either side by five short drawers, each with two panels decorated with pastoral and hunting scenes, the angels engraved with scrolls, the sides inlaid with geometric parquetry, on later paw feet, minor losses, central door locked, some replacements to the drawer-hinges
38 in. (96 cm.) high; 4½ in. (11 cm.) wide; 15½ in. (39 cm.) deep

Sale room notice

Please note that the measurement should read 44 in. (111 cm.) wide and not as stated in the catalogue.

Lot Essay

This ebony table-cabinet is designed with a Doric tabernacle compartment in the mid-17th century antique or Roman manner, and is engraved with festive ornament, derived in part from Ovid's metamorphoses. Cupid is perched above the tabernacle, which is framed by tablet vignettes of figures sporting in pastoral landscapes, and he celebrates 'The Loves of the Gods', as represented by a scene from the History of Diana, Goddess of the Chase. A related cabinet of this 'papeleira' type, in the Museo de Artes Decorativas, Madrid, is illustrated in H. Hayward, World Furniture, 1965, fig. 358.

Other related cabinets with closely related genre and pastoral scenes executed in tortoiseshell and ivory were sold Christie's New York, 27 May 1999, lot 278 ( $46,000), and Sotheby's New York, 20 March 1998, lot 322 ($ 68,500).

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