LATE 16TH/EARLY 17TH CENTURY,

The presence of the coat-of-arms of two German aristocratic families, Nagel von Dirnstein on the left hand door and Bolandt on the right hand door, would suggest that this outstanding early example of German Renaissance joined furniture was commissioned either as a wedding gift or to otherwise commemorate a marriage between the two families. Though geneaological research has as yet not provided a date for this union, a comparable cupboard from Rhineland also with a coat-of-arms is carved with the date 1618 (illus. W. Koeppe, Die Lemmers-Danforth-Sammlung Wetzlar, Heidelburg, 1992, p. 187) and another cupboard carved with two family's coat-of-arms dating to circa 1600 is in the Focke-Musuem, Bremen (illus. H. Kreisel, Die Kunst des deutschen Möbels, Munich, 1974, vol. I, no. 310. With the upper doors carved with saints Mark and Luke, it is further suggestive that these families were Protestant followers of the tenants of Martin Luther, taking odds with the Catholic Holy Roman Emperor and the Pope in Rome during the religious wars that plagued Northern Europe for much of the century.