Estimate

50.000 - 70.000

Session 1

1 July 2015

Hammer Price

Description

Fall-front, one long drawer
Azorean cedar, rhamnus glandulosa (sanguinho), taxus baccata (teixo) and other woods inlaid decoration depicting birds and flowers
Interior with fourteen drawers
Original iron mounts
Portugal - Azores, 16th century
(minor losses and defects)

118x50x109 cm

Category

Furniture

Additional Information

Very few similar examples are known. Percy MacQuoid was the first publishing about a similar piece identifying it as Elizabethan, at the time was the property of Sir George Donaldson (today is part of a Portuguese private collection).
zMacQuoid describes the cabinet with the following words: The writing-cabinet is an example of early marqueterie made in this country by an exceptionally talented craftsman, working out the advantages he had received from association with foreigners and their methods; the small and rather fanciful detail of the inlay, which is additionally decorated with painted lines, suggests a period between 1550 and 1560. It is probable that in this instance the inspiration was Spanish, and that its prototype came over in connection with Philip.
These type of Azorean furniture was properly studied and identified by José J. G. Jordão Felgueiras at his article O Desconheçido Mobiliário Açoreano do Século de Ouro. A propósito do despropósito Contador de Argote in Revista Mvsev, Círculo Dr. José de Figueiredo, IV Série, Nº11, Porto, 2002, p.77-79. Page 98 reproduces another similar piece.