Italian, Genoa, last quarter of the 17th century

Alvar Gonzàlez- Palacios (op. cit.) has highlighted the extraordinary quality of this pair of cabinets. He emphasises their virtuoso cabinet-making, with an ability to turn the extreme hardness of the highest quality of Brazilian rosewood into a smoothed and velvety patinated surface. This outstanding effect may have been achieved by a German cabinet-maker active in Genoa based on a design drawn by an architect. The stands, too, show a northern influence, in the particular shape of the volutes. González-Palacios concludes that the stands were executed specifically for, and contemporaneously with, the cabinets, creating a contrast between the freedom of the sculptural supports and the severity of the rosewood.

The architectural facades of the cabinets, each with central inner niches, are divided by fluted columns and crowned by an arched cresting with finial vases and galleries, flanked by scrolls, above a central aedicula door revealing a removable mirrored niche, the flanking aediculae and the plinth with mechanical opening drawers. The stand with auricular double scroll supports is centred by an acanthus leaf and surmounted by a swag of flowers.

The present cabinets were located until 1979 in the Castle of Arenzano owned by the Durazzo-Pallavicini family. The Durazzo family was one of the largest Genoese families that marked the political life of the Republic of Genoa. The Durazzo family produced politicians, cardinals and bishops, ambassadors, and numerous collectors, patrons and scholars. The Pallavicino were one of the major and oldest feudal families in Northern Italy, and one of the most flourishing branches of the ancient Obertenga family.

This lot has an artistic export license for the European Union only. We highly recommend you contact the specialist department for further information regarding export procedures and shipping costs from the European Union.