17th Rare Flemish Red Tortoiseshell Marquetry With Theater

Rare Antwerp travel cabinet from the 17th century.

Externally an elegant structure in ebony and blackened wood with chiseled and gilded bronze profiles and handles; opening the flap reveals the real spectacle: an architectural set of nine drawers (the drawer at the bottom is a false double drawer) covered with inlays of red scales and  fillets with a central colonnade of two columns respectively inlaid with red tortoiseshell and two enamelled copper columns in imitation of lapis lazuli. The two central columns frame a theater with a checkerboard floor in ebony and ivory and a mirror background.
The columns have magnificent Corinthian capitals in gilded copper.

Born during the Renaissance, the cabinet will become in the 17th century an essential piece of furniture, demonstrating the wealth of its owner and containing his treasures. In Flanders, the hard stones used in Italy not being available, we mainly use tortoiseshell from the colonies; in this rare case, enameled copper is used to imitate lapis lazuli.

Measures
W cm 63
D cm 30
H cm 39