AN IVORY-INLAID FRUITWOOD BOX**

Details
AN IVORY-INLAID FRUITWOOD BOX**
AUSTRIAN, DATED 1602

With hinged rectangular top inlaid throughout with scroll work and inlaid with the inscription 'A.K.F.Z.A.' and the date 1602, centrally inlaid with the coat-of-arms of Khevenhüler, the front decorated with prancing horses and the sides with a king and a queen and courtiers, the back decorated with two stags, the interior inlaid with Hercules and the Arcadian stag
4½in. (11.5cm.) high, 11½in. (29cm.) wide, 8¼in. (21cm.) deep

Lot Essay

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE:
J. Siebmacher's grosses Wappenbuch, vol. 26, Die Wappen des Adels in Niederösterreich, Neustadt an der Aisch, 1984, pp. 149-52; and vol. 27, Die Wappen des Adels in Oberösterreich, N. a. d. A., 1983, pp. 225-26, pl. III, VIII

The second initial is certainly explicable as that of the very distinquished, noble Austrian family, Khevenhler, whose coat-of-arms features below. Originally Franconian, the ancient family moved to Kärnten (c. 1030) as Princes. The first initial 'A', could be that of the given name of Augustin, of Aichelberg, Landeskron and Hoch - Osterwitz, who was the Emperor Maximilian I's Chamberlain and Imperial Councillor (Reichshofrath). Augustin (died 1549) is regarded as the founding father of the later dynasties, which were divided under his six sons, Christof founding the senior, so-called Frankenburger line, and Sigmund the later princely, Hochosterwitz line. None of his other sons or grandsons recorded in the standard literature shared the initial A., and so the initials - in view of the date 1602 - may be retrospective. The remaining three initials, 'F.Z.A.', remain to be properly elucidated; but the following may be hazarded: 'F' might stand for 'Fürst' (=Prince); 'Z' for 'zu' and 'A', for Aichelberg, their ancestral castle in Kärnten, Austria [i.e. 'Prince of Aichelberg'].