16th Century Decorative Boxes

RARE CENTER CHAPEL COUNTER 16th Century Lusíada - Portuguese in teak, Partial sissoo coating with ivory inlays, with 9 drawers simulating 10. Micromosaic in different materials, bac...

Rectangular box with hinged lid on ball feet. It has slight damage, the lid for the key opening is missing.

Florentine leather casket Italy, Tuscany 16th century leather, iron and wood. Very rare boiled leather box incised on a wooden core; iron lock. The central shield is divide...

chest. Wood, bone inlay, iron. Spain, possibly Catalan or Aragonese school, 16th century (with later restorations). Rectangular casket with a flat lid that closes at the front by m...

Pyx. Carved and polychrome wood. Spanish school, 16th century. Box with a circular base and a frustoconical body that has a vaulted lid topped with a knob with a molding, it is made of carved wood and preserves traces of gilding on its outer surface and also on the interior (lid and base). In this area it is decorated with some vegetable-themed carvings on the lid and winged angel heads joined by curved textiles reminiscent of garlands on the front of the body. Typologically, the shape of the piece is reminiscent of silver pyxes...

16th century, Late Gothic, iron bound casket, French, Circa 1500-1540 Rectangular casket with round-arched lid, with a twisted wrought iron handle on the lid, and a hasp and lock....

Rare Elizabeth I oak, walnut & chestnut table cabinet, with a hinged top enclosing a well. Above a frieze of geometric mouldings, the lockable fall-fro...

The late 16th century Elizabeth I Diminutive Cedar wood table casket or desk box, Circa 1600. England. The raised and moulded top slides open to reveal a recessed well. The entire moulded 'caddy' with applied edge-mouldings to all faces opens on strap hinges to a box interior exposing an internal sliding peg to the lockable sliding panelled frieze with pyramid centres, concealing four small drawers around a central deeper drawer above a long drawer, all with edge mouldings and turned handles. Raised on an intricately moulded base and raised on what is believed to be all of the original reeded bun feet. It should be noted - Caskets of this form from the Elizabethan period are extremely rare. This casket is one of the most accomplished and original examples to be discovered. The colour and patination of the original surfaces are outstanding. Sensational. Literature: For a comparable inlaid table...

Chest. Carved and polychrome wood. Spain, 16th century. Carved wooden casket, gilded and polychrome with a rectangular base and upper part in the shape of a gabled roof or trough (with straight and not inclined smaller sides); It opens when lowering the front panel, revealing the polychrome and the gilding of the interior. On the outside, the piece presents a painted decoration: on the smaller sides two male figures on a gold background flanked by fine balustraded columns and under a decoration reminiscent of cloth; the front has simple architectural elements carved in slight relief, leaving the semicircular arch for a Virgen de la Leche; the back has a composition based on vegetal elements in "ce", scrolls, winged children, masks, scrolls, etc., with a clear classicist influence; The upper part of the piece has a decoration similar to that of the background on all fronts except the front, where you can clearly see an inscription in Latin capital letters inspired by Antiquity framed by a band with scrolls and vegetal elements. On the sides are Saint Peter with the keys and Saint Paul holding in his arms the sword that alludes to his martyrdom. Both the faces and the postures of the characters and the architectural elements show a clear relationship with stylistic novelties, while the golden background is a common detail in the Spanish schoolsince the Gothic. Decoration based on plant elements, scrolls, etc. present in several areas of the casket, which has already been mentioned, it is known as grutescos, and stands out for its classicist influence, for not presenting a strictly symmetrical organization in all the panels in which it is found, and for its compositional quality. The grotesque is a very common decorative motif in art since the "discovery" (XV century) in the Domus Aurea of Rome of ancient paintings with vegetal elements, cornucopias, panoplies, human and theriomorphic figures, mythological beings, etc. arranged in usually symmetrical compositions. The Virgin Mary is presented nursing the Child, hence this iconography is known as the Virgin of the Milk. Regarding the inscription (“O SACRV CONBIBIVM IN QUO XR [CRISTO] / SVMITVR RECOLITVR MEM / RIA PASSIONIS EIUS MENS INP”) distributed in three lines, it is a prose text in Latin in which the Blessed Sacrament is honored, written by Saint Thomas...

The beautiful 16th century Italian renaissance cassone or marriage box with its rare small size will make a lovely addition to your de...

Ark with geometric decoration. Leather and wrought iron, Spain, circa 1500. Rectangular trunk with curved lid and key lock located on a trimmed molding that rests on three supports on the floor. On the outside, it is decorated with sticks and plates attached with tacks to the leather cover, it has two handles on the sides and keeps the lid fastened by hooks inserted in the wood that double as hinges. Pinewood. This storage cabinet was one of the most representative typologies in the history of Spanish furniture until the 17th century, like the rest of the coffers and their derivatives. This concrete type, rectangular, usually oak, lined with leather and covered with staples and ribs on the tops and fronts, were known throughout Europe until, approximately, the 16th century and were called "in the manner of Spain" there. The next step in the evolution of leather chests decorated with spiked metal elements is the application of brass tacks forming drawings with them, of which a somewhat larger number of examples have been preserved than of this trunk (such as the one said that it belonged to Felipe II...

"Ensalayada" casket, Spain, 16th century. Wood lined with red velvet with golden locks and handle iron appliques trimmings. Casket These kind of caskets are known as ensayaladas, s...