Catalan cabinet made of walnut wood, with boxwood... Lot 831

Catalan cabinet made of walnut wood, with boxwood marquetry and rich inlaid decoration. Spain, S, XVII. 166 x 65 x 103 cm Cabinet with two doors that in its interior follows faithfully the structure of the Catalan cabinets of the 17th century. Its central part is arranged in the style of the architectural desks of the time with numerous drawers and hinged lid. The upper part is formed by a high cornice and the lower part has a low body with three drawers and a sketched plinth on claw feet. The inlay and the marquetry are imposed with motifs that are delineated with boxwood fillets, and are composed of multiple small geometric pieces - rhomboidal, triangular, square - made of bone, embedded in the walnut base, known as "grain of rice" or "pinyonet". _x000D_ _x000D_ Catalan decorative cabinets, designed to be displayed open, date back to the 14th century and survived until the Baroque period. Although the oldest preserved ones come from religious institutions, they were also used in the halls of palaces and rich houses. Like the bridal chests to which they are formally related, they were usually acquired on the occasion of the betrothal celebrated within wealthy families, and presided over the bedchamber or the common room. In the course of their existence, they were easily adapted to the decorative vocabulary of each period, maintaining their structure with few variations, in particular the low body of drawers, the high cornice and the plinth. During the Renaissance, the upper body was often organized, as we can see in our piece, in the manner of an Italian loggia, which in this case is broken down into a multitude of secret drawers, which pretend to be part of the architectural design.