POSSIBLY WORKSHOP OF GIUSEPPE PARVIS (D. 1909), CAIRO, EGYPT, 19TH CENTURY

Giuseppe Parvis (d. 1909) was an Italian cabinetmaker whose workshop was commissioned by Khedive Isma’il to make objets d’art based on Mamluk examples in the Dar al-Athar al-Arabiyya to display at world fairs. An example in the Khalili collection closely comparable to the present box contains a note written in 1907 saying that it was ‘the beautiful workmanship of Mr. Parviss of Cairo’ (S. Vernoit, Occidentalism, Oxford, 1997, p. 230). Another sunduq box from this workshop can be seen in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (M.73.41). Similar sunduqs, also attributable to Parvis, sold in these Rooms, 7 April 2011, lot 407, and 24 November 1987, lot 113.