Box thumbnail 1
Box thumbnail 2
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Not currently on display at the V&A

Box

1500-1600 (made)
Artist/Maker
Unknown
Place of origin
Venice (made)

Square box with removable lid. On the front is a figure of Marcus Scaevola in a compartment outlined by a lozenge interlacing with a square, and surrounded by gilt arabesques: the back is similarly ornamented with a figure of Victory holding two trumpets. The sides and top are also covered with gilt arabesques. Each side is fitted with three brass drop handles, the centre one issuing from the mouth of a male mask.

Condition (2020): lid is missing one moulding


Object details

Categories
Containers
Woodwork
Medieval and Renaissance
Object type
Box
Parts
This object consists of 2 parts.

  • Box
  • Lid
Materials and techniques
Beech wood veneered with ebony, painted and gilded
Beech
Ebony
Gilding
Brief description
Beech and ebony box; Venice; 1500-1600
Physical description
Square box with removable lid. On the front is a figure of Marcus Scaevola in a compartment outlined by a lozenge interlacing with a square, and surrounded by gilt arabesques: the back is similarly ornamented with a figure of Victory holding two trumpets. The sides and top are also covered with gilt arabesques. Each side is fitted with three brass drop handles, the centre one issuing from the mouth of a male mask.

Condition (2020): lid is missing one moulding
Dimensions
  • Height: 15.6cm
  • Width: 12cm
  • At base depth: 12.2cm
Measured NH Dec 2020: Height of body without lid: 12.2cm Body excluding base mouldings: W. 10.9 x D. 11cm Lid: HWD: 4.9 x 11.8 x 12cm
Credit line
Bequeathed by George Salting
Object history
Beaqueathed by George Salting.
Historical context
Comparable boxes
V&A 217-1866
Cofano in ebano e avorio, Venice end of 16c, whereabouts unknown, fig. 458 in Tra/E: Teche, pissidi, cofani e forzieri dall’Alto Medioevo al Barocco, exhibition catalogue, curated by Pietro Lorenzelli and Alberto Veca (Galleria Lorenzelli, Bergamo Oct-Dec 1984 and Antiquaria, London March-April 1985)
Bibliographic references
  • Peter Thornton, Capolavori lignei in formato ridotto, in Arte Illustrata, Anno V, n.47, gennaio 1972, (pp. 9-12, pp.50-7, pp.108-110, trans. by Elena Lante-Rospigliosi Translated from the Italian: "The little box in fig. 3 is delicately decorated with a gold motif in the Moresque style on black lacquer ground and with a delicate polychrome angel in the centre of a star-shaped panel. Apart from its particular charm this is an object of particular interest because it belongs to that kind of objects (little boxes and caskets) made in imitation of metal objects that were decorated using a technique with undoubted non-European origins. The metal objects we are referring to are the well-known damascened brass items decorated with Saracenic patterns made in Venice by damascene metalwork artists. The inspiration for this object can be found in a box similarly decorated with elements framing damascened panels. The lacquer technique on the other hand derives predominantly from Islamic lacquered items of the same period which were undoubtedly known in Venice in the sixteenth-century when this box was made. Both the damascened brass decoration and its Moresque ornaments reflect the close commercial links which existed in that time between Venice and the Near East. The lacquer on this box was not a copy of the Far Eastern lacquers almost unknown in the West at the time this object was made. At the same time in Islamic countries very beautiful objects were made using this technique and decorated with Moresque patterns; it is not necessary therefore to search for other sources of inspiration."
  • Peter Thornton, Cassoni, Forzieri, Goffani and Cassette: Terminology and its problems, in Apollo vol. CXX (1984), no.272 pp.246-251, fig. 18.
  • Hans Huth: Lacquer of the West. The History of a craft and an industry, 1550 - 1950. (Chicago, 1971), fig. 12, p.6 "A box, cassa da pettenti (pl. 12), intended to be carried by cords, appears to be the same type as the two square boxes decorated with bone (pls. 7,8), discussed earlier. Although Moresque motifs appear in the decoration, the figure set in the center square is in the Renaissance style that made its appearance in Venice after the middle of the sixteenth century. The attempt to create a lacquer effect is carried out with success...
Collection
Furniture and Woodwork Collection
Accession number
W.180-1910

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Record createdFebruary 2, 2007
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O131252/box-unknown/
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