Antwerp cabinet - 17th century

Cabinet on foot, in red tortoiseshell veneer and bone fillets on an oak and softwood frame. The sides are inlaid with exotic wood called "partridge wood", framed with bone fillets.
It opens with two rows of five drawers arranged laterally, 2 drawers in the lower part, and 2 architectural drawers framing the central doors from above and below. The drawer fronts are framed with wavy moldings called "guilloche" in ebony, and without pull knobs.
A cutout in the upper part of the drawers allows you to place the key to open the locks (rear) and pull them.
The 2 doors with semicircular architectural decorations are framed on either side by sheaths supporting, in the middle a baluster in gilded wood, and laterally bronze atlantes supporting a capital. These 2 doors open onto a "theater" in perspective, showing an interior designed in mirrors framed by twisted columns in gilded wood with a checkered floor; on each side, a row of false drawers. This perspective leads us deep down towards a Cupid painted on wood in grisaille.
The support table, from a later period (19th century), in blackened wood is composed of 4 inverted twisted columns, beginning and ending with bases and cushioning in turned and gilded wood. The belt of the table takes up the decoration of the cabinet in trompe-l'oeil (for the wood and the red tortoiseshell).
At the junction of the table and the cabinet, a wooden marquetry tablet emerges, highlighted with bone fillets and a radiant star in its center.

The 17th century, the golden age in Holland and the Netherlands, saw the development of the Fine Arts and the decorative arts. Ports such as Ghent, Antwerp and Bruges grew in size and became very significant transit zones. The trade in works of art, craft products and the import of luxury goods became very important. From 1625 onwards, Antwerp cabinetmakers became more innovative and excelled in the execution of these cabinets. These pieces of furniture were intended for the local market made up of bourgeois, wealthy merchants, aristocrats but also for the export market.

Antwerp work from the 17th century.

The base and the shelf from the 19th century, later locks and keys.

Height: 172 cm.
Width: 129 cm.
Depth: 48 cm.