A rare wooden cabinet (poplar?) covered in gold-embossed lea - Lot 74

A rare wooden cabinet (poplar?) covered in gold-embossed leather with repoussé silver plaques. It opens with two doors revealing eight drawers and a small central door; the drawer fronts are decorated with repoussé silver plaques depicting elongated allegories and putti in medallions, as well as foliage scrolls, with chimera busts and animated by putti, arranged symmetrically on either side of a lion’s muzzle surmounted by a shell; small movable rings in the shape of dolphins flanking a mascaron; door panel illustrating the allegory of the Arts with two women dressed in ancient style; top, cornice, side panels, door panels front and back, drawer frames, and richly molded base entirely covered with foliage and floral motifs, arranged in diamond patterns on the front and sides, and in continuous friezes on the uprights and cornice; the reverse of the doors each adorned with a silver plaque bearing a coat of arms: the left one bearing the arms of the Cavaletti [azure] with a Pegasus [argent] emerging from flames [or] rising from the left flank in the base, with the Anjou chief, the right one bearing the arms of the Citterio family [azure] with a crenellated castle [gules] surmounted by three stars [or] in chief, with the Imperial chief (fig. a and b). Northern Italy, Venice, second half of the 17th century H. 53 cm - W. 62 cm - D. 30 cm - W. with flaps open 86.5 cm (some damage, restorations, and wear) Provenance: - Former collection of Walter and Lucie Rosen, New York - Blumka Gallery, New York, in the 1960s - Private collection, Paris The activity of Venetian workshops, whether in the field of so-called "lacquered" leathers or those gilded with a small iron tool, has been known since the 15th century, with the leather artisans of the Serenissima having even formed a separate guild. In the field of gilded metalwork, bookbinders created typographic characters inspired by cursive script, such as fleurons in the form of small leaves that left an indentation in the leather intended to hold the gold. Initially strongly Oriental in style, this ornamentation diversified over the years and became more complex, evolving into a wide variety of motifs and a highly varied geometric arrangement that contributed to the reputation of Venetian bookbindings throughout Europe during the Renaissance. The cabinet presented here is truly extraordinary for its unparalleled richness of ornamentation. Thus, a multitude of dies were used to adorn every surface of this small piece of furniture, on which only a few square centimeters within the oval cartouche at the top of the cabinet were left blank. The bookbinder has crisscrossed, juxtaposed, and superimposed geometric lines, overloading the decoration to the maximum. This ornamental richness is echoed by the repoussé silver plates, whose decoration is itself very dense with numerous figures, scrolls, and lion masks; only the plate on the small central door, whose engraved origin has not been identified, has a slightly more open composition, thus drawing the eye more strongly. The coats of arms on the inner side of the door panels themselves cover the entire free surface of the oval cartouche in which they are inscribed. They have been identified as belonging to a family of Roman origin in one case and Milanese origin in the other, though no connection between the two has been established. We know only that the Roman Cavaletti family held various positions in the conservatories of Rome between 1638 and 1818, and that the Citterio family, for its part, originated in Alexandria and settled in Milan at the end of the 16th century. Extremely fragile, the furniture entirely covered in gold-embossed leather dating from the 16th and 17th centuries has virtually disappeared. In public collections, only a French cabinet and its base, covered in red morocco leather and dated around 1620, is on view at the National Renaissance Museum in Écouen (inv. E.Cl.7722). One can mention another cabinet of fine quality that appeared on the Paris art market several years ago and another previously unpublished piece, held in a private collection, which belonged to the historiographer François Roger de Gaignières in 1711.