the hinged top with two moulded panel reserves depicting biblical scenes of David and Goliath against a stipple ground, the surround profusely decorated with putti, leaf scrolls, and cartouches; the front with three further moulded panel reserves depicting biblical scenes of the Judgement of Solomon, the surround decorated with sirens, satyrs, putti, cartouches and architectural niches

(144cm long, 61cm high, 67cm deep)

Provenance: Careston Castle, Brechin, Angus

Note: Intaglio carving is a feature of furniture of the northern Italian Alpine region that was popular in the 16th and early 17th centuries, traditionally associated with the area around the Adige River. The technique of flat, incised decoration with inked scenes against a cut away, punched background, often depicted Biblical, literary, and historical scenes accompanied by animals and mythical beasts. Pieces were typically made of cedar or cypress due to their relative softness for ease of carving, but also for their warm colour and scent, which was a deterrent to moth and worm damage. Chests and boxes made of cypress and cedar were useful for storing valuable textiles, and period inventories throughout Europe record them, indicating that they were desirable objects and traded far outside their region of origin. In Shakespeare’s ‘Taming of the Shrew’ Gremio brags of his cypress chests containing ‘arras counterpoints, costly apparel, tents, and canopies, fine linen, Turkey cushions, … and all things that belong to house or housekeeping’. A cypress chest filled with bed hangings was listed in the 1626 inventory of Cockseden [P. Thornton, Furniture History, 1971, p. 68] and examples are in the collection of the V&A and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.