CHARLES II EBONY SILVER MOUNTED BOX
LATE 17TH CENTURY
£8,200
Auction: 22 October 2013 at 18:00 BST
Description
the rectangular hinged lid decorated with four silver bosses and carved throughout in high relief with scrolling foliage and stylised thistle motifs, opening to a void interior with covered compartment, the sides applied with silver flowerhead studded decoration, with a drawer below
Dimensions
30cm wide, 16cm high, 21cm deep
Footnote
Provenance: With White Allom and Company., London, circa 1924
Literature: Country Life publicity for 'A Dictionary of English Furniture', by Percy Maquoid and Ralph Edwards, 'Extract from the Section on Boxes', circa 1924, illus. Fig. 12.
Note: The publicity for the Dictionary of English Furniture, published in Country Life illustrates the present lot as 'the type presented by Charles II to foreign ambassadors. C. 1675'. The text continues ' Fig. 12 is made in ebony, and dates from about 1675. It is finely carved on every side with the conventional thistle motif and clamped, studded and handled with silver, the studs forming a part of the pattern on the lid. The lower portion opens as a drawer, a feature introduced in the structure of boxes towards the close of the previous century. Under the Tudors and Stuarts the giving of presents played an important part in diplomacy, and a number of these highly ornamented specimens are said to have been presented by Charles II to foreign ambassadors."