Cabinet, ebony with silver and silver-gilt mounts, Germany (Augsburg), about 1605-10

Rectangular ebony cabinet with stepped base on four flattened spool-shaped feet, with two hinged doors at the front which open to reveal multiple drawers and compartments inside, and a stepped lid surmounted by a cast figure of the goddess Diana. The cabinet is decorated on all exterior and interior surfaces with applied silver mounts, some gilt, which have been elaborately pierced and chased or cast. The lid slides open to reveal an inkstand with inkpot and sand caster. The three central interior compartments are decorated with low reliefs of the Virtues (Charity, Faith and Justice) personified as women. There is an oval handle on either side of the cabinet.

Dr W.L. Hildburgh Bequest

Apparently obtained by the collector Walter Leo Hildburgh in Austria. Bequeathed by him to the V&A on his death in 1955.

The term cabinet could refer to a piece of furniture as well as the room in which a collection was displayed. By 1600 collecting cabinets with drawers had become refined showpieces made by virtuoso craftsmen. As they was made from expensive materials, they came to be admired as treasures themselves. The smaller cabinets were designed to hold jewels, shells, medals, gems, coins and other precious objects, reproducing in miniature the concept of the 'cabinet of curiosities'. This cabinet has a dual function: the lid slides open to reveal an inkstand.

Luxury ebony furniture decorated with silver mounts and inlays was a speciality of Augsburg craftsmen from the 1570s until the mid 17th century, when pure silver furniture became more fashionable. Ebony-silver cabinets were made in large quantities, many to the instructions of the Augsburg art dealer, collector and diplomat Philipp Hainhofer (1578-1647). Boas Ulrich's workshop specialised on an almost industrial scale in the production of mounts for such pieces, which he would doubtless have supplied to a cabinet maker as and when required (see Hayward under References). He used the same mould for the cast figure of Diana on a mounted ebony writing box of 1595-1600 also in the V&A (M.474&b-1956).

A similar, although much larger, mounted ebony cabinet is illustrated in Anton Mozart's small 1615 painting of the famous 'Pomeranian collector's cabinet' made in Augsburg (one of Hainhofer's most prestigious commissions) for Duke Philip II of Pomerania-Stettin in 1617. The painting is now in the Kunstgewerbemuseum in Berlin.

The term cabinet could refer to a piece of furniture as well as the room in which a collection was displayed. By 1600 collecting cabinets with drawers had become refined showpieces made by virtuoso craftsmen. As they was made from expensive materials, they came to be admired as treasures themselves. The smaller cabinets were designed to hold jewels, shells, medals, gems, coins and other precious objects, reproducing in miniature the concept of the 'cabinet of curiosities'. This cabinet has a dual function: the lid slides open to reveal an inkstand.

Luxury ebony furniture decorated with silver mounts and inlays was a speciality of Augsburg craftsmen from the 1570s until the mid 17th century, when pure silver furniture became more fashionable. Ebony-silver cabinets were made in large quantities, many to the instructions of the Augsburg art dealer, collector and diplomat Philipp Hainhofer (1578-1647). Boas Ulrich's workshop specialised on an almost industrial scale in the production of mounts for such pieces, which he would doubtless have supplied to a cabinet maker as and when required.

M.511 to K-1956