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Lot Essay
This cabinet is an extremely fine revival of a type of luxurious furniture that was in fashion in 15th and 16th century Spain. It is decorated with a particularly intricate inlay work called taracea of which the drawers and exterior of the fall front panel are a fine example.
This technique of micromosaic inlay (taracea) was used in Spain and North Africa and it makes its appearance as early as the 10th century on the minbar of the Great Mosque of Cordoba, dating to its enlargement under al-Hakim II (961-976 AD). Caliphal marquetry workshops continued to execute court commissions under the Almoravids and the Almohads and contributed to the splendour of the minbars in the Qarawiyyin mosque in Fez and those of Kutubiyya and the Qasba mosques in Marrakech (Dodds, 1992, p.373). To achieve this effect of micro-marquetry the artisan would produce thin rods of various material and work them in either square or triangle before plunging them in baths of coloring agents. The rods would then be bound together in order to form patterns and debited in thin slices before being inlaid (https://mba.dijon.fr/sites/default/files/odm_decembre_4.pdf, accessed 14/09/2017).
The stellar motifs, and especially those of the central drawers articulated within interlocked squares themselves set within polygons, precisely remind the decoration of a Nasrid cabinet, albeit of a much smaller size, now kept in the Musée des Beaux-Arts of Dijon. That cabinet appears to be a very early Nasrid example of inlaid furniture and is attributed to the 14th century. A number of other pieces are known, including three chairs: one is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, catalogued as 16th century (Kurz 1972, no. 10, pp.304-05). Another, catalogued as 14th-15th century, is in the Museo de la Alhambra in Granada (Arte Islamico en Granada, 1996, no.188, pp.436-37) and the last one was sold at Christie’s King Street, 7 April 2011, lot 119 which was carbon dated with a 95% probability that it dates from 1470-1670.
Another chest exhibited in Berlin at the Kunstgewerbemuseum shares the same attributes as our 19th century revival example, notably the construction of the drawers as well as the locking system. Both are inlaid with micromosaics composed of stellar motifs within interlocked squares fitted in polygons. The iron lock plates share the same escutcheon-like form with the locking bar running through the plates all the way to the side of the keyhole. The cabinet is dated to circa 1500 (see Rust, 1989, pp. 29-38).
This technique of micromosaic inlay (taracea) was used in Spain and North Africa and it makes its appearance as early as the 10th century on the minbar of the Great Mosque of Cordoba, dating to its enlargement under al-Hakim II (961-976 AD). Caliphal marquetry workshops continued to execute court commissions under the Almoravids and the Almohads and contributed to the splendour of the minbars in the Qarawiyyin mosque in Fez and those of Kutubiyya and the Qasba mosques in Marrakech (Dodds, 1992, p.373). To achieve this effect of micro-marquetry the artisan would produce thin rods of various material and work them in either square or triangle before plunging them in baths of coloring agents. The rods would then be bound together in order to form patterns and debited in thin slices before being inlaid (https://mba.dijon.fr/sites/default/files/odm_decembre_4.pdf, accessed 14/09/2017).
The stellar motifs, and especially those of the central drawers articulated within interlocked squares themselves set within polygons, precisely remind the decoration of a Nasrid cabinet, albeit of a much smaller size, now kept in the Musée des Beaux-Arts of Dijon. That cabinet appears to be a very early Nasrid example of inlaid furniture and is attributed to the 14th century. A number of other pieces are known, including three chairs: one is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, catalogued as 16th century (Kurz 1972, no. 10, pp.304-05). Another, catalogued as 14th-15th century, is in the Museo de la Alhambra in Granada (Arte Islamico en Granada, 1996, no.188, pp.436-37) and the last one was sold at Christie’s King Street, 7 April 2011, lot 119 which was carbon dated with a 95% probability that it dates from 1470-1670.
Another chest exhibited in Berlin at the Kunstgewerbemuseum shares the same attributes as our 19th century revival example, notably the construction of the drawers as well as the locking system. Both are inlaid with micromosaics composed of stellar motifs within interlocked squares fitted in polygons. The iron lock plates share the same escutcheon-like form with the locking bar running through the plates all the way to the side of the keyhole. The cabinet is dated to circa 1500 (see Rust, 1989, pp. 29-38).