SPAIN, 16TH CENTURY ON LATER TRESTLE STAND

A very similar vargueno, dated to the 16th century, is in the collection of the Hispanic Society (Grace Hardendorff Burr, Hispanic Furniture from the 15th through the 18th Century, New York, 1964, fig. 127, pp.134-37). Although in that example the decoration is architectural and is centred around an armorial, the technique is the same and elements of the decorative repertoire are echoed. For example the inlaid roundels, reciprocal triangle borders and even the brass, vase-shaped, drop pulls. Whilst in that example the quartered armorial (in which only two of the quarters are legible and include a lion rampant and three cauldrons) indicate a Christian provenance; in the present example a series of crosses (found on the lower bar of the trestle stand and on the two bars which extend to support the drop front) do the same. Whilst this was made for a Christian patron, the decoration owes all its inspiration to Moorish inlaid woodwork.