A rare late 15th/early 16th century giltwood, pastiglia and polychrome-painted cassone, North Italian, circa 1500-1530


The lid with raised flat centre formed from two boards, with gilt-decorated edge, the curved front decorated with masks, scrolling-acanthus, central flaming-urn and two coats of arms, all within a deep double-guilloche border, the sides painted with a coronet, military-trophies and a vacant cartouche, and with iron bail-handles, on front bracket-shaped feet, 168cm wide x 50cm deep x 56cm high, (66in wide x 19 1/2in deep x 22in high)
|A Cassone - translated as large box - was an effective form of storage in Italy throughout the 16th century. By around 1550 it had become fashionable to carve rather than paint the chests - see Lot 612 for a carved walnut example, circa 1575.A very similar chest, with the same curved front profile, and flat angled brackets, is in the Rijksmuseum [BK-16873] and dated 1500-1600. Another, in the Museo del Prado [O000460], is dated circa 1520.Unfortunately, the tinctures of the coats of arms - which place one metallic tincture next to another - do not conform to accepted heraldic conventions. This is probably due to later overpainting or re-touching. As a result, it has not been possible to identify the couple whose marriage this chest commemorated.