A SOUTH GERMAN IRON-BOUND EBONY TRAVELLING CASKET
Lot 71

A SOUTH GERMAN IRON-BOUND EBONY TRAVELLING CASKET

AUGSBURG, MID-17TH CENTURY

Closed25 June 2008

Price Realised

EUR 7,500

More Information

How to sell

A SOUTH GERMAN IRON-BOUND EBONY TRAVELLING CASKET
AUGSBURG, MID-17TH CENTURY
The hinged top stamped EBEN and marked with a pinecone for Augsburg enclosing a fitted interior with pewter lined parquetry specimen wood panels with snakewood, ebony, kingwood, padouk and olivewood, enclosing various marbleised paper lined compartments for pens, writing materials, various pewter lidded bottles, an ink well and sand sprinkler, the panel to the reverse of the lid lifting out to reveal a long drawer and a solid ebony ruler, with a base drawer to one side containing a folding pewter lined padouk, ebony, snakewood games board with a chess and backgammon board together with two sets of fifteen black stained and natural turned bone playing pieces and three bone dice
20 cm. high x 35 cm. wide x 12,5 cm. deep

Specialist note

Such as the fashion for ebony in 17th century Europe that cheaper imitations, usually in the form of stained or ebonized pearwood, began to appear at an early stage; from about 1625, Augsburg makers stamped their pieces with the word 'Eben' in order to guarantee the material.