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Lot Essay
The earliest appearance of tortoiseshell in Ottoman art appears to be on a bookbinding dated circa 1560 and was widely used after the third quarter of the 16th century (E. Atil, The Age of Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent, exhibition catalogue, Washington, 1987, cat. 49a). The combination of tortoiseshell with mother-of-pearl became extremely popular by 1600. A similar scribe's cabinet on bracket feet is in the Louvre (L'Art du livre arabe, exhibition catalogue, Paris, 2002, cat. 53, p. 82).
This table cabinet or casket was previously photographed with a detachable fall front, now sadly lost. That fall front was inlaid to the inside with the star of David. The late Lord Sandys recorded that Kathleen Stolar, a scholar, visiting with the Georgian Group in 1966, suggested that it 'almost certainly belonged to a Jewish family [originally], as the symbol would be unlikely to be used by anyone else...', however, it seems likely that the cabinet was new when acquired, so it may be that infact it was either made by a Jewish craftsman or intended for the Jewish market. Lord Sandys also noted that the inscription revealing the route by which this cabinet made its way to England in 1690 was found by the famed furniture historian Arthur Negus during a visit to Ombersley Court in 1962.
This table cabinet or casket was previously photographed with a detachable fall front, now sadly lost. That fall front was inlaid to the inside with the star of David. The late Lord Sandys recorded that Kathleen Stolar, a scholar, visiting with the Georgian Group in 1966, suggested that it 'almost certainly belonged to a Jewish family [originally], as the symbol would be unlikely to be used by anyone else...', however, it seems likely that the cabinet was new when acquired, so it may be that infact it was either made by a Jewish craftsman or intended for the Jewish market. Lord Sandys also noted that the inscription revealing the route by which this cabinet made its way to England in 1690 was found by the famed furniture historian Arthur Negus during a visit to Ombersley Court in 1962.