Rectangular casket in alla Certosina marquetry, Northern Italy mid-15th c.

This beautiful box is adorned with a sumptuous geometric decoration composed of Greek friezes, triangles and refined interlacing, made using the alla certosina marquetry technique, a wood and bone marquetry.
This technique is rooted in the art of Geometric Tarsia, a fine wood marquetry with geometric designs that was widespread in Muslim Spain from the 10th century onwards. These combinations were used to decorate wooden doors, for example, but also, on a less monumental scale, combs and chests, all produced in the workshops of Cordoba and Granada. It was undoubtedly through Mediterranean trade that this technique arrived in Italy in the 14th century, where it was adapted and enshrined by the Bottega des Embriachi. However, in the cities of Northern Italy, where the attraction for oriental luxury objects flourished and prospered, the process retained the interest of patrons until at least the 16th century.

This superb casket illustrates how, at the end of the Middle Ages, by substituting their own manufactured products for those of the Orient, the workshops of Northern Italy maintained their hold on the European luxury market.
These products were sold by merchants from Lucca, Genoa and Venice, but also at the fairs and in the major urban centres of the period, such as Bruges and Paris, where the elite seemed to adopt the same taste for the exotic as their Italian counterparts.

The inside of the box is covered with a beautiful embossed paper decorated with flowers and showing some traces of gilding.