Ottoman Walnut Table Cabinet
SOLD
AN OTTOMAN TURKISH TORTOISHELL BONE AND MOTHER OF PEARL INLAID WALNUT JEWELLERY TABLE CABINET
Dated August 1690
Height 9 ¼” (23.5cm) Width 16” (40.5cm) Depth 9” (23 cm)
Elaborately inlaid to all sides with tessellated designs and geometric borders and fitted with eight small drawers, this Cabinet was previously with detachable front cover. One drawer is inscribed in black ink: ‘This cabinet I brought out of Turkey. It was made there August 1690, Eliz. Turnbull’ The carcase and drawers have further ink locating markings.
This exquisitely created Cabinet which was almost certainly acquired in Istanbul, reflects the highly cultivated and affluent community which existed at the height of the Ottoman Empire. A comparably cultivated and creative community also existed under the Caliphate in Cordoba in the 10th and 11th centuries.
Provenance: Acquired by Elizabeth Turnbull August 1690 then by descent in the Sandys and Hill families at Ombersley Court.
Literature: Country Life 1953 Page 96 Plate 5
A similarly decorated Scribes Cabinet can be found in the Louvre ( L’Art du livre arabe, exhibition catalogue, Paris 2002 cat. 53 P 82)
