NASRID OR POST-NASRID SPAIN, LATE 14TH OR 15TH CENTURY

This technique of taracea (micromosaic) inlaid was used in Spain and North Africa from as early as the tenth century, appearing on the minbar of the Great Mosque of Cordoba dating to its enlargement under al-Hakim II (r. 961-978 AD). Caliphal marquetry workshops continued to execute court commissions under the Almoravid and Almohad dynasties and contributed to the splendid minbars of the Qarawiyyin mosque in Fez and those in the Kutubiyya and Qasba mosques in Marrakech (Jerrilyn D. Dodds, Al-Andalus, The Art of Islamic Spain, New York, 1992, p. 373). The technique remained popular until the end of the sixteenth century.

The effect of micro-marquetry was achieved by working thin rods of metal and other materials into square or triangular arrangement before plunging these sections into baths of colouring agents. These sections of rods would be then bound together with others to form a larger pattern and debited in thin slices before being inlaid.

The majority of examples of Spanish marquetry objects from this period include stained bone, silver and sometimes ivory alongside woods of various types in the design. Aside from the strip of alternating bone and wood above the foot, this lot is notable for being executed solely in wood. Nonetheless the repeating eight-pointed stars, bands of chevrons and crenellated motifs are found on other examples of Nasrid and post-Nasrid woodwork and the same desired effect achieved. The form of the present lot is very similar to a smaller sixteenth century box in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London (acc. no. 530-1903) whilst a Nasrid or post-Nasrid fall-front wooden cabinet with similar decoration was sold in these Rooms, 10 October 2014, lot 229.