Mexican, 17th century, wood, leather, polychrome

Rectangular trunk of the form and size of a smal suitcase with hinged lid. Wood, covered with leather, cut and embossed with conventional foliage and animals and enriched with colours on a red ground. On the front, a roundel containing a standing lion(?) embracing a stylised flower or young tree. The lid has a scalloped border on three sides overlapping the join. On either side is an iron bail handle. On the front two iron loops are fixed, so that the lid can be secured with a padlock (missing). The inside is lined with silk brocade of the 17th century. Underneath coarse stitching is visible where the sections of leather are joined.

Bought from Antonio Marcato of Venice for £7. 17s.
Wykes authority RP 8990/1890

Described on accession as "Coffret and cover. Wood. Covered with leather, “cuir bouilli”, decorated with floral designs, the double headed eagle, lions, and birds, symmetrically arranged in green and gold on a red ground (the colours now much worn). The inside is lined with silk brocade woven with flowers in gold and colours. It has a padlock and key. Italian 15th century"

Revised June 1899 to "Coffer of wood, covered with leather (cuir bouilli), cut and embossed with conventional foliage and animals and enriched with colours; the inside is lined with silk brocade of the 17th century. It has a screw padlock of chiselled iron. Probably made in a Portuguese colony in the East; 17th century"

Comparable objects:
See Campos Carlés de Peña, María. A Surviving Legacy in Spanish America : Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Furniture from the Viceroyalty of Peru (Ediciones El Viso, [2013]), p.146
Illustrates a similar trunk: Travel petaca, Museo de Arte de Lima collection, 18th c.

226-1891