Intarsia Document Box

Intarsia Document Box.

Marquetry Document Box Incorporating an Augsburg Intarsia Panel.

The panel 16^th century.

The box 19^th century.

Length: 14.5 inches (37 centimetres).

Width: 10.25 inches (26 centimetres).

Depth: 3.5 inches (9 centimetres).

This box was created to house the exquisite intarsia panel of numerous stained and shaded woods including ash, sycamore, fruitwood and burr alder. The panel which is bordered with multiple bands of alternating shades revealing foliage issuing from strange geometric containers. A stained scagliola style border surrounds the central rectangle which displays various musical instruments among more green stained foliage and geometric forms.. The ogee moulded platform base of the box below an apron enclosing continuous inlaid octagonal designs.

Intarsia originated in Northern Africa making its way into Christian Europe via Sicily and Andalusia. It became popular in Northern Italy in the 15th and 16^th centuries, around the same time spreading to German centres where indeed this particular panel originated. The technique is aptly described by Alan and Judith Farr Tormey in their article Renaissance Intarsia: The Art of Geometry as a form of wood inlay that flourished in the Renaissance “when it notably embodied the development of a mathematical procedure for representing the three-dimensional world in two dimensions.”

Price

This object is eligible for a Certificate of BADA Provenance

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