Pogliani, Cabinet in Two Parts, Inlaid and Inlaid with Ebony

rare large sideboard in blackened pear with inlaid brass decorations, Napoleon III period top quality. small flaws, but overall in good condition.

Art Nouveau sideboard in oak and brass, Gustave Serrurier-Bovy style, circa 1900.

Very decorative inlaid cabinet. The upper part containing two doors, inlaid with architectural trompe-l'oeil of imaginary towns, two drawers, open lower section. Overall decorated wi...

IMPORTANT CABINET WITH TWO BODY IN BLACKENED WOOD CARVED AND ENGRAVED ORIGIN: FRANCE PERIOD: 17TH CENTURY Height: 188 cm Width: 135 cm Depth: 53.5 cm Blackened wood and veneer: rosewood, ebony, pear, mahogany Framed in oak wood A real ceremonial piece of furniture, this two-part cabinet opens with two historiated panels and two drawers in the upper part and two leaves and two belt drawers in the lower part. Richly worked, it offers both inside and outside a floral decoration, finely engraved which contrasts with the importance given to geometric lines. This duality, typical of this type of cabinet, confirms its dating and its origin. In addition, the gilded metal locks and fittings enhance the sumptuous trait of this piece of furniture and also contribute to its ornamentation. Furniture of predilection for “enclosing the most precious things” (Furetière, Dictionnaire, 1690) the appearance of cabinets in the 16th century accompanied the development of wunderkammern, these cabinets of curiosities enriched both by the vogue for the antique and by distant expeditions which bring back with them natural wonders and rare testimonies of distant civilisations. The curious, combining fortune and culture, brings together antique medals, rare plants, fossils, or oriental ornaments. This meeting of pieces which embodies much more than their material reality, a subjective evocation of all the riches of the earth and all the knowledge of men, acts in the eyes of its owner like a microcosm of which he is the master and which he enjoys according to his will. This is how the first cabinets were designed to be transportable, often wooden structures calling for riches only those they housed for a collector who refused to part with them, even temporarily. In the 17th century, the cabinet gained in technical complexity and luxurious materials until it could no longer be moved itself and became a prized and expensive collector’s item...