An Antwerp ebony cabinet: the hinged rectangular top enclosing a plain interior and concave moulding above a pair of parallel doors enclosing an architectural interior centred by a cupboard door, flanked by Ionic columns and enclosing a mirrored stage-set, surrounded by nine walnut-lined drawers and a secret drawer above a plinth fitted with two drawers, on a later stand with a frieze drawer and twisted legs joined by an H-shaped stretcher; the drawers and door panels decorated with mythological scenes: upper panel: Mercury and Herse; central panels (anti-clockwise from top left): Vertumnus and Pomona; Apollo and Coronis; Apollo and Daphne; The mocking of Ceres; Perseus turning Atlas into a rocky mountain; Circe; Meleager and Atalanta; Narcissus; Perseus and Medusa; The Abduction of Helen (central door); door panels: An Allegory of the Elements: Earth and Fire (left); Air and Water (right)

Details

School of Antwerp, circa 1640
An Antwerp ebony cabinet: the hinged rectangular top enclosing a plain interior and concave moulding above a pair of parallel doors enclosing an architectural interior centred by a cupboard door, flanked by Ionic columns and enclosing a mirrored stage-set, surrounded by nine walnut-lined drawers and a secret drawer above a plinth fitted with two drawers, on a later stand with a frieze drawer and twisted legs joined by an H-shaped stretcher; the drawers and door panels decorated with mythological scenes: upper panel: Mercury and Herse; central panels (anti-clockwise from top left): Vertumnus and Pomona; Apollo and Coronis; Apollo and Daphne; The mocking of Ceres; Perseus turning Atlas into a rocky mountain; Circe; Meleager and Atalanta; Narcissus; Perseus and Medusa; The Abduction of Helen (central door); door panels: An Allegory of the Elements: Earth and Fire (left); Air and Water (right)
61 x 39½ x 17 in. (154.9 x 100.4 x 43.2 cm.), with the doors closed and including stand

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

The composition of three of the mythological scenes painted on the panels of the drawers - Narcissus, The Mocking of Ceres and Meleager and Atalanta - derive from prints by Antonio Tempesta (1555-1630) (see Bartsch, XVII, 665, 685 and 714).

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