A travelling cabinet - Workshop of Wenzel Jamnitzer, Nuremberg, circa 1580

Travelling cabinet
Nuremberg, circa 1580
Workshop of Wenzel Jamnitzer (1507/1508-1585)

Provenance:
-Alys de Riquet de Caraman Chimay, Comtesse de Caraman-Chimay (1868-1953), Princess Borghese, by his marriage in 1902 to Giovanni Battista Borghese, Duke of Palombara (1855-1918);
-Wittelsbach Collection, dukes of Bavaria

Moving inscription handwritten under a drawer:
“Qui / trouvera / cela / pense à nous / prie pour nous / Alys de Caraman Chimay / aime / Giovanni Borghese / 1915” (Who may find this, think of us, pray for us. Alys de Caraman Chimay loves Giovanni Borghese. 1915).

Comparative literature:
Eugen von Philippovich. “Kuriositäten, Antiquitäten: Ein Handbuch für Sammler und Liebhaber”. Brunswick 1966, p.321, pl. X.
Günther Schuchardt. “Die Kunstsammlung der Wartburg”. Regensburg 1998, pp. 37-38.
Georg Himmelheber. “Große Wunder - kleine Möbel : Kassettenmöbel der Sammlung Grothe”. Knauf-Museum, Iphofen 2005, n°25, p.45.
Hildegard Wiewelhove. “Kostbar und geheimnisvoll... Miniaturmöbel und Schatzkästchen der Sammlung Grothe“. Museum Huelsmann Bielefeld, Bielefeld 2003, n°47, pp.34-35.

The engraved arabesques are after ornaments in the taste of Peter Flötner (1485 / 96–1546) or Virgil Solis (1514-1562) for example. The rectangular scene showing the Biding of Isaac on the cover and the other one representing Jacob’s Ladder on the fall front door are after engravings by Virgil Solis from the book "Biblische Figuren des Alten und Newen Testaments / gantz künstlich gerissen" published and print by David Zöpfel, Johann Rasch and Sigmund Feyerabend in Frankfurt am Main in 1560.

Several very similar cabinets are known:
for example, one from the Pierre Bergé / Yves Saint Laurent Collection (its sale: Christie's Paris, February 23-25, 2009, lot 644, formerly in the Pollak & Winternitz Collection, sold in Vienna at Albert Kende's, March 29-31, 1933, lot 398), one from the Josef Kranz Collection (its sale: Rudolph Lepke, Berlin, November 8, 1927, lot 104); another one in the Grothe Collection (cf.Himmelheber 2005 & Wiewelhove 2003); another one from a private collection and illustrated in 1966 by Eugen von Philippovich; but especially the one preserved in Wartburg at the Museum der Kunstsammlung which is signed by Wenzel Jamnitzer and dated 1575 (cf. Schuchardt 1998) thus authorizing to relate the other known examples to the workshop of the famous goldsmith from Nuremberg.