Bargueño

Beltrán-Ausó Collection Ebony, walnut, applications in lemongrass, pine, bronze and tortoiseshell h: 106.5 cm; w: 66 cm; h: 37 cm Eighteenth century

An Italian style waste-paper chest, made of ebony veneer, walnut, lemongrass and pine with inlaid bronze decoration around the entire front and drawers. It has pink tortoiseshell appliqués, which are extracted in thin sheets from the shell of the tortoiseshell turtle from the Far East, and were highly prized in the 18th and 19th centuries and widely used while rococo tastes prevailed.

A richly decorated piece of furniture with drawers, sometimes with handles and a hinged lid, used for storing papers and small objects. This type of desk reached its peak of splendour in the 16th and 17th centuries. The chest of drawers on display here is decorated with a decoration based on plates taken from the shell of the tortoiseshell turtle from the Far East. This material, which was highly prized in the 17th and 18th centuries, was used to produce ostentatious marquetry. Although it was already used by the Romans, the use of this noble material experienced a great boom when André Charles Boullé, the great French master cabinetmaker, used it for his ostentatious Baroque marquetry in tortoiseshell and brass.

S.C.: 11215
Unpublished