Cabinet thumbnail 1
Cabinet thumbnail 2
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Not on display

This object consists of 27 parts, some of which may be located elsewhere.

Cabinet

1600-1650 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Large cabinet with fall front (now detached) containing 20 drawers (with four more concealed) and two cupboards in three tiers; the exterior with pierced steel mounts overlaying yellow textile (the mounts on the top without textile) at the corners and at intervals along the edges; fitted on each side with a large cast bail handle finely chiselled with ornamental rings and finials; the fall front fitted with three iron hinges (each with three pine cone rivets) with matching pierced lockplate and four side bolts of gilded steel, with confronting rampant lions and two spiralled baluster ornaments (or one on each bolt) with obelisk finials; the two pronged hasp with spiralled balusters and pine cone ornaments. Nail holes indicate where five square, pierced mounts were originally set diamond-wise around the lock plate on three sides.
The interior drawer and cupboard fronts are decorated with walnut veneers with ivory inlay, black paint and gilding, pairs or trios of fluted and spiralled, partly gilded columns (plain on their backs) forming arcading and aedicules with a central cross below a gilded scallop shell motif, and turned ivory ball ornaments flanking the pediment, each fitted with a gilded pine cone knob handle. The central panel of each drawer or cupboard with four rhombus motifs arranged around a circle in four divisions. The four central drawers with a gilded grid with elongated ovals. The four deep drawers are each fitted with a secret subdrawer, the front of which is concealed as the plinth to the aedicule, or arcade for the wide bottom drawer. Most drawer fronts are inscribed on the top edge in Arabic or roman numerals up to 19.

Construction
The carcase dovetailed, the back board is nailed with figure of 8 head nails into a narrow rebate (and has a long split across the middle). Fitted inside the main boards is an inner nest of vertical dividers and dustboards, with its own exterior boards glued(?) to the main boards, all the joints mitred and with ivory stringing along its front edges. The inner nest is of walnut for the outer boards and softwood with a 7cm lip of walnut. The fall front of breadboard construction, the side battens mitred with deep (2.5cm tongue and groove). The drawers are fully dovetailed in walnut (x3 dovetails), the bottoms (a single board grained front to back) nailed up on all four sides, and at the front shaped to match the section of the applied drawer fronts, the elements of which are nailed. Each pine cone knob handle is driven into the drawer front with a clinched nail. The secret drawers are fully dovetailed (x1) in walnut, the bottoms (a single board grained front to back) nailed up.

Modifications
The fall front detached (the two screws that fixed each hinge to the cabinet bottom have sheared), with wooden caps filling the hinge mortises at the bottom of the carcase. The mounts removed and the textile replaced. Nail holes around the mounts indicate fixings for metal borders that have been lost. The top of the cabinet has been stained black.

Object details

Category
Object type
Parts
This object consists of 27 parts.

  • Cabinet
  • Fall Front
  • Keys
  • Drawer
  • Drawer
  • Drawer
  • Secret Drawer
  • Drawer
  • Drawer
  • Drawer
  • Drawer
  • Drawer
  • Drawer
  • Drawer
  • Secret Drawer
  • Drawer
  • Drawer
  • Drawer
  • Drawer
  • Drawer
  • Secret Drawer
  • Drawer
  • Drawer
  • Drawer
  • Secret Drawer
  • Drawer
  • Drawer
Materials and techniques
Walnut with gilded iron
Brief description
Cabinet, Spanish, 1600-1650, walnut with gilded iron
Physical description
Large cabinet with fall front (now detached) containing 20 drawers (with four more concealed) and two cupboards in three tiers; the exterior with pierced steel mounts overlaying yellow textile (the mounts on the top without textile) at the corners and at intervals along the edges; fitted on each side with a large cast bail handle finely chiselled with ornamental rings and finials; the fall front fitted with three iron hinges (each with three pine cone rivets) with matching pierced lockplate and four side bolts of gilded steel, with confronting rampant lions and two spiralled baluster ornaments (or one on each bolt) with obelisk finials; the two pronged hasp with spiralled balusters and pine cone ornaments. Nail holes indicate where five square, pierced mounts were originally set diamond-wise around the lock plate on three sides.
The interior drawer and cupboard fronts are decorated with walnut veneers with ivory inlay, black paint and gilding, pairs or trios of fluted and spiralled, partly gilded columns (plain on their backs) forming arcading and aedicules with a central cross below a gilded scallop shell motif, and turned ivory ball ornaments flanking the pediment, each fitted with a gilded pine cone knob handle. The central panel of each drawer or cupboard with four rhombus motifs arranged around a circle in four divisions. The four central drawers with a gilded grid with elongated ovals. The four deep drawers are each fitted with a secret subdrawer, the front of which is concealed as the plinth to the aedicule, or arcade for the wide bottom drawer. Most drawer fronts are inscribed on the top edge in Arabic or roman numerals up to 19.

Construction
The carcase dovetailed, the back board is nailed with figure of 8 head nails into a narrow rebate (and has a long split across the middle). Fitted inside the main boards is an inner nest of vertical dividers and dustboards, with its own exterior boards glued(?) to the main boards, all the joints mitred and with ivory stringing along its front edges. The inner nest is of walnut for the outer boards and softwood with a 7cm lip of walnut. The fall front of breadboard construction, the side battens mitred with deep (2.5cm tongue and groove). The drawers are fully dovetailed in walnut (x3 dovetails), the bottoms (a single board grained front to back) nailed up on all four sides, and at the front shaped to match the section of the applied drawer fronts, the elements of which are nailed. Each pine cone knob handle is driven into the drawer front with a clinched nail. The secret drawers are fully dovetailed (x1) in walnut, the bottoms (a single board grained front to back) nailed up.

Modifications
The fall front detached (the two screws that fixed each hinge to the cabinet bottom have sheared), with wooden caps filling the hinge mortises at the bottom of the carcase. The mounts removed and the textile replaced. Nail holes around the mounts indicate fixings for metal borders that have been lost. The top of the cabinet has been stained black.
Dimensions
  • Height: 54.6cm
  • Width: 88.9cm
  • Depth: 51.4cm
From catalogue: H. 1' 9 1/2'', L. 2' 11'', W. 1' 8 1/4'' (54.61 x 88.9 x 51.4 cm)
Object history
Bought, 26l . 6s . 4d . from Garcia Perez, Salamanca
Extract from J. C. Robinson report, no. 4466 10th March 1864 "Cabinets of this peculiar style or pattern were executed in great numbers during the 16th, 17th and perhaps the 18th cent., great numbers of them are still extant in Spain and it is clear that this design was an especially national & characteristic one, repeated traditionally down to a comparatively recent period. The present example is an unnaturally fine one of its kind and probably belongs to the first half of the 17th century."
Historical context
On the development of this type of cabinet see Mª Paz Aguiló Alonso, Escritorios y bargueños españoles - Spanish bargueños and writing chests (Ministerio de Economia y Empresa, 2018) [bilingual edition], pp.49-54
Bibliographic references
  • Ancient and Modern Furniture & Woodwork in the South Kensington Museum, described with an introduction by John Hungerford Pollen, (London, 1874), pp. 77-78. Cabinet. Walnut wood, with falling front; the lock-plate, angle clasps, &c., of openwork gilt iron. The interior drawers are decorated with marquetry and ivory. Spanish. 1st half of 17th century. H. 2 ft. 6 ½ in., L.3 ft.10 in., W., 1 ft. 6 in. Bought, 26l. 6s. 4d. The exterior of this cabinet is made ornamental mainly by means of the metal bolts and lock plate of gilt iron, which enrich its appearance. These consist of a central lock plate with massive falling hasp, reaching down from the top of the box or cabinet; four side bolts, two each side, and three groups of three metal knobs, shaped into ribbed and cross-lined cones, along the bottom. The lock plate is of thin metal, pierced in bookbinding arabesque pattern, and measures twelve inches by nine. The hasp is formed with two massive columns, of ornamental balustrade design, standing out on its face. Similar plates and similar projecting columns or pillars form the bolt handles and furniture. These columns are emblems of the Columns of Hercules, the key or gate of the Mediterranean; and the lions which are figured amongst the iron work, the cognizance of Leon, sufficiently indicate the Spanish nationality of the work. The interior is divided into drawers and pigeon-holes, with architectural fronts. Little colonnades in perspective, after the Italian fail-lion of the late 16th century, are inlaid in ivory, to give it the character of a complete architectural composition in miniature. Gilding is used on the mouldings, and ivory on the flat portions. It is an interesting example of the prevalence of the architectural idea that accompanied the renaissance revival of architecture so universally throughout Europe, and showed itself, not only in the re-arrangement of churches and streets, but in the elaborate domed church tabernacles furnished with columns, pediments, and all the members of a complete architectural structure. At the same time the outer case of this cabinet is as plain as can be. The boards that form its sides show their unmoulded edges decorated with pierced metal laid on, round the flap described above. No form of furniture can be more simply or more easily constructed by moderately skilled carpenters. Such metal work could be made to decorate any plain neat woodwork, and it is on the exterior that the main decoration of such furniture is shown when not in actual use.
  • Juan F. Riaño, Classified and Descriptive Catalogue of the Art Objects of Spanish Production in the South Kensington Museum. (London, 1872), p.5 Cabinet. Walnut wood, with falling front; the lock-plate, angle clasps, &c., of openwork gilt iron. The interior drawers are decorated with marquetry and ivory. Spanish. First half of 17th centy. H. 2 ft. 6 ½ in., L.3 ft.10 in., W., 1 ft. 6 in. Bought, 26l. 6s. 4d. This is the upper part of a cabinet called in Spain "Vargueño," from having been generally made at a town called Vargas in the province of Toledo. The lower part is wanting."
  • South Kensington Museum, John Charles Robinson, J. C Robinson, and R. Clay, Sons and Taylor. 1881. Catalogue of the Special Loan Exhibition of Spanish and Portuguese Ornamental Art: South Kensington Museum, 1881. London: Chapman & Hall, p.120
  • Champeaux, Alfred De: Le Meuble. II. XVIIe, XVIIIe et XIXe Siècles. Paris: Societé Français d'Editions d'Art, 1885, illustrated as fig.1, p. 9.
Collection
Accession number
244:1-1864

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Record createdJune 24, 2009
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