An Indo-Portuguese teakwood (Tectona grandis) cabinet, thickly veneered and inlaid in ebony (Diospyros ebenum) highlighted with ivory decorative pegs.
Raised on flattened ball-shaped gilt copper feet, it features highly elaborate openwork fire-gilt copper mounts that include corner braces, large hinges, lock escutcheon plate, drawer pulls, and top handle. The back and sides, of carpet-like pattern decoration, feature a field of fine floral scrolls arranged in double symmetry with central rosette and broad ebony border. Identical type of highly stylised foliage decoration, probably inspired by European ornamental engravings, can be seen on the drawer fronts.The front door is characterised by a central medallion featuring a stylised lion, or siṃha, a beast present for its apotropaic role in protecting the valuable contents once held in the cabinet’s drawers. The inner door surface, a field of ebony geometric squares punctuated by ivory pegs that contrast with the darker teakwood, also features a circular medallion of siṃha lion mask.
For its chosen materials and ornamental grammar, as well as for the sophisticated openwork fittings typical of such production, it is possible to identify its origin as from Goa. A ventó (26.0 x 22.7 x 33.6 cm) of identical origin, and featuring similar ornamental repertoire, albeit of silver fittings and missing the stylised lions, belongs to the Museu Nacional de Soares dos Reis, in Oporto (inv. 29 Div MNSR).
In its shape, this cabinet reproduces an East Asian prototype known as ventó. The Japanese term bentō, which was absorbed into the Portuguese language, referred to, - according to the Nippo jisho the first Japanese-Portuguese dictionary published in 1603 as Vocabulario da lingoa de Iapam - a lunch box. In fact, the original Japanese model for the ventó is known as kakesuzuri-bako, or ‘portable writing box’, which, when it has a frontal door and fittings like a strong box, is called funa-dansu, or ‘ship chest with drawers’: a box for seals (documents, writing paraphernalia, and ink stones) and money, with a single hinged front door, usually adorned with intricate metal fittings hiding various inner drawers or compartments. Fall-front writing cabinets, ventós, and small table cabinets were made in Asia in exotic and expensive materials and became highly admired and eagerly sought after in Europe, not just for their exotic shape but also for their technical mastery.
Hugo Miguel Crespo
An Indo-Portuguese teakwood (Tectona grandis) cabinet, thickly veneered and inlaid in ebony (Diospyros ebenum) highlighted with ivory decorative pegs.
Raised on flattened ball-shaped gilt copper feet, it features highly elaborate openwork fire-gilt copper mounts that include corner braces, large hinges, lock escutcheon plate, drawer pulls, and top handle. The back and sides, of carpet-like pattern decoration, feature a field of fine floral scrolls arranged in double symmetry with central rosette and broad ebony border. Identical type of highly stylised foliage decoration, probably inspired by European ornamental engravings, can be seen on the drawer fronts.The front door is characterised by a central medallion featuring a stylised lion, or siṃha, a beast present for its apotropaic role in protecting the valuable contents once held in the cabinet’s drawers. The inner door surface, a field of ebony geometric squares punctuated by ivory pegs that contrast with the darker teakwood, also features a circular medallion of siṃha lion mask.
For its chosen materials and ornamental grammar, as well as for the sophisticated openwork fittings typical of such production, it is possible to identify its origin as from Goa. A ventó (26.0 x 22.7 x 33.6 cm) of identical origin, and featuring similar ornamental repertoire, albeit of silver fittings and missing the stylised lions, belongs to the Museu Nacional de Soares dos Reis, in Oporto (inv. 29 Div MNSR).
In its shape, this cabinet reproduces an East Asian prototype known as ventó. The Japanese term bentō, which was absorbed into the Portuguese language, referred to, - according to the Nippo jisho the first Japanese-Portuguese dictionary published in 1603 as Vocabulario da lingoa de Iapam - a lunch box. In fact, the original Japanese model for the ventó is known as kakesuzuri-bako, or ‘portable writing box’, which, when it has a frontal door and fittings like a strong box, is called funa-dansu, or ‘ship chest with drawers’: a box for seals (documents, writing paraphernalia, and ink stones) and money, with a single hinged front door, usually adorned with intricate metal fittings hiding various inner drawers or compartments. Fall-front writing cabinets, ventós, and small table cabinets were made in Asia in exotic and expensive materials and became highly admired and eagerly sought after in Europe, not just for their exotic shape but also for their technical mastery.
Hugo Miguel Crespo